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Kahmandu: The former leader of Nepal's bloody Maoist insurgency captured a seat on Saturday on a new assembly that will chart the Himalayan country's future, election officials said.
Prachanda, who goes by one name, led what appeared to be a powerful Maoist showing in Thursday's election. He won a seat in a constituency in the capital, Kathmandu.
Election official Devendra Parajuli said Prachanda won 23,277 votes, almost twice the total for his closest competitor.
The former rebels have taken 12 out of 22 constituencies where vote counting has been completed in the election for Nepal's Constituent Assembly, which will draft a new constitution for the country, election officials said.
Former US President Jimmy Carter, whose Carter Centre sent 62 observers to monitor the election, said it indicated a major transition for Nepal.
Carter said at a news conference in Kathmandu, "If the Maoists do gain a substantial share of power I hope the United States will recognise and do business with the government."
The new constitution is widely expected to do away with Nepal's centuries-old monarchy.
Early results from Thursday's vote indicated that the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), members of which ended a 10-year insurgency in 2006, could also be set to win control in 61 other constituencies where counting was still going on, the Election Commission said.
Of the 21 constituencies counted by Saturday afternoon, the Maoists had 11 seats while the Nepali Congress and the United Marxist-Leninists secured four each, the commission said.
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