ABSTRACT
Introduction The Maoist electoral victory in Nepal in April 2008 surprised and shocked not only the competing political parties but also national and international commentators and the Maoists as well. The Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist (CPN-M), which had waged a decade-long violent rebellion, received two times more seats than their nearest rival in the election for the 601-member Constituent Assembly.2 Under the first past the post (FPTP) election for 240 members, the Maoists won 120 seats – more seats than the rest of the 53 competing parties in total. The distribution of 335 seats under the proportional representation method closed the gap between the Maoists and other parties and prevented the Maoists from gaining a majority in the Constituent Assembly (see table 14.1). I will examine different factors behind the Maoist victory in this chapter.
