Maoist Leader Becomes Nepalese PM

(August 16,2008) Members of Nepal's parliament have overwhelmingly elected the Maoist leader Prachanda, a former agricultural science teacher-turned-revolutionary, as the country's new prime minister. The 53-year-old won 80% of votes to defeat his only rival, the Congress Party candidate, Sher Bahadur Deuba. The UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon warmly congratulated Pushpa Kamal Dahal – who goes by the name Prachanda – on his election as Nepal’s first Prime Minister since the South Asian nation abolished the monarchy and declared itself a republic. Maoists won a surprise victory in April elections, and two other key parties supported Prachanda in the vote. Last month, Nepal swore in a mainly ceremonial president, Ram Baran Yadav, after the monarchy was scrapped in May. It is only two years since Prachanda emerged from more than two decades underground as a militant communist leader. "I am very happy and very emotional," he said as he left the constituent assembly after the vote, reported AFP news agency. Today is a day of pride and it will be written with golden letters in the history of the nation. What the Maoists called their "people's war" had left 13,000 people dead, tens of thousands displaced and much of the country's infrastructure destroyed. The Maoists' deputy leader, Baburam Bhattarai, said: "Today is a day of pride and it will be written with golden letters in the history of the nation." He predicted that Prachanda would be a leader "for a new era".