NEPAL'S CA ELECTION: DECLARED RESULTS INCLUDE

UNCLAS KATHMANDU 000438 SIPDIS SENSITIVE SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV PTER KDEM NP SUBJECT: NEPAL'S CA ELECTION: DECLARED RESULTS INCLUDE DOUBLE WINS REF: A. KATHMANDU 432 ¶B. KATHMANDU 428 One More First-Past-the-Post Contest Decided -------------- ¶1. (SBU) In the 24 hours ending at noon local time on April 18, the Election Commission has declared the Nepali Congress the winner of one first-past-the-post (FPTP) contest, increasing the number of declared races from the April 10 Constituent Assembly (CA) election to 221 out of 240. (Note: These results include only those the Election Commission has officially released and thus trails media announcements. End note.) Communist Party of NEPAL - Maoist - 116 constituencies; 52.5 percent Nepali Congress (NC) - 34 constituencies; 14.5 percent Communist Party of NEPAL - United Marxist Leninist (UML) - 31 constituencies; 14 percent Madhesi People's Rights Forum (MPRF) - 24 constituencies; 11 percent Other Madhesi parties - 10 constituencies; 4.5 percent Minor left parties - 4 constituencies; 2 percent Independents - 2 constituencies; 1 percent By-Elections May Affect Final FPTP Results -------------- ¶2. (SBU) By-elections in five constituencies -- in which the winning candidate also won in another constituency -- probably will not be held for several months. The by-elections will not delay the sitting of the CA, but they may affect the final number of FPTP seats a party wins. Maoists - 2 declared constituencies to hold by-elections NC - 1 declared constituency to hold by-election MPRF - 2 declared constituencies to hold by-elections PR Votes Consistent with Projected Wins -------------- ¶3. (SBU) International election experts told the Deputy Chief of Mission on the morning of April 18 that with 64 percent of the proportional representation ballots counted, their projection of the total share of the 575 elected seats each party will have in the 601-member CA remains essentially the same (Ref B). The distribution of current PR votes is as follows: Maoists - 31.9 percent (projected to win 41.2 percent of combined CA seats) NC - 21.8 percent (projected to win 19.5 percent of combined CA seats) UML - 20.8 percent (projected to win 18.6 percent of combined CA seats) MPRF - 4.3 percent (projected to win 6.5 percent of combined CA seats) POWELL