Ex-rebel Maoist chief elected Nepal’s new Prime Minister

NEPAL: Lawmakers in Nepal yesterday overwhelmingly elected Maoist leader and former warlord Prachanda as the Himalayan country’s first republican prime minister, officials said.

The vote in Nepal’s Constitutional Assembly also ends months of political deadlock that followed the sacking of King Gyanendra and the abolition of the 240-year-old monarchy.

Prachanda, 53, led a decade-long mountain and jungle insurgency to overthrow the monarchy a war which cost at least 13,000 lives and shattered the landlocked country’s mainly-agricultural, subsistence-based economy.

He was backed by 464 deputies, with 113 against, Constitutional Assembly Chairman Subash Nemwang announced. His only rival was Sher Bahadur Deuba, a three-time former premier and member of the centrist Nepali Congress party. AFP