KATHMANDU: Nepal’s Communist parties will form the next government, the election commission confirmed on Friday after releasing long-delayed election results months after polls billed as a turning point for the Himalayan nation roiled by decades of political instability.

The alliance of the largest Communist party and former Maoist rebels has secured a strong majority in both the directly elected lower house of parliament and the indirectly elected upper house, according to official results from the commission.

Nepal voted in historic elections late last year seen as the end of a drawn-out peace process that began 11 years ago when Maoist guerrillas ended their bloody campaign against the state and joined government.

Two years later, Nepal overthrew its 240-year-old monarchy, beginning its transition to a federal democracy.

The elections were the first under the country’s new post-war constitution, which sets out a sweeping overhaul of the political system, devolving significant power from the centre to the seven provinces.

Published in Dawn, February 10th, 2018