Security Council urges Nepalese to respect electoral outcome after peaceful vote

The Security Council today congratulated the people of Nepal on the “largely peaceful” Constituent Assembly election held on 10 April, and urged them to abide by the outcome of the historic polls.

In a statement read out to the press by Ambassador Dumisani Kumalo of South Africa, which holds the Council’s rotating presidency for April, the 15-member body urged all Nepalese parties “to respect the will of the people and the rule of law in the coming weeks as the results are being counted.”

The UN Mission in Nepal (UNMIN) today confirmed that the country’s Election Commission declared results in 239 of 240 constituencies in the first-past-the-post vote, and in 232 constituencies in the proportional representation race.

Final results from both races are expected tomorrow, after which the Commission will take a few days to tabulate the results and allot seats in the Constituent Assembly to all eligible political parties.

Once elected, the Constituent Assembly will be tasked with drafting a new constitution for Nepal, which has emerged from a decade-long civil war that claimed an estimated 13,000 lives before the Government and Maoist rebels signed a peace accord in 2006.

The Secretary-General’s Special Representative in Nepal, Ian Martin, said that even before all results are in, it is clear that the Constituent Assembly is going to reflect Nepal’s diverse population better than any previous body.

“Rather than inviting political conflict, this is an opportunity to develop an inclusive and participatory process for making key decisions about the future of Nepal,” he said in an interview with the Nepali national daily Gorkhapatra.

He added that all political parties have indicated that they accept the election results as the basis for forming the Constituent Assembly, as well as a new government to administer the country during the period it takes to draw up the new constitution.

“But we must remember this peace process is not yet complete by any means,” Mr. Martin noted. “The Constituent Assembly election was a very important moment in it, but there are major issues still to be addressed.”