Thursday, April 10, 2008



Nepal votes

Nepal goes to the polls today to elect a new Constituent Assembly which will revise the constitution and hopefuly abolish the monarchy. According to the Wikipedia page, the Nepalis are using a Supplementary Member system, with 240 members elected in FPP constituencies and 335 from proportional party lists (an additional 26 members will be appointed by the Prime Minister). There's been some violence - Nepalese security forces shot a group of Maoist poll workers a couple of days ago, and at least one candidate has been murdered - but it seems to be going pretty well despite that. Hopefully it'll finally resolve some of Nepal's constitutional tensions and set the path for a gradual shift to multi-party, democratic republic.