Hundreds of Maoist supporters chant anti-monarchy slogans as they take part in a protest rally in Kathmandu, Nov. 18.

KATHMANDU, Nepal, Dec. 24--Nepal’s government agreed to abolish the centuries-old monarchy in a political deal with Maoist former rebels, but the decision only comes into effect after next year’s elections, party officials said.
The Himalayan nation plunged into a fresh political turmoil three months ago when the anti-monarchy Maoists, who ended their decade-long civil war last year, quit the government, reported Reuters.
They were demanding an immediate declaration of a republic, a step that indefinitely delayed the constituent assembly elections that had been set for November.
Those polls, Nepal’s first national vote since 1999, were meant to map the country’s political future, including that of the monarchy, and expected to cap the landmark peace deal.
Government leaders met with Maoist chief, Prachanda, to break the deadlock that has dealt a blow to the 2006 pact ending the conflict which caused more than 13,000 deaths.
“Nepal will be a Federal Democratic Republic nation ... and the decision will be implemented after the first meeting of the constituent assembly,“ the six-party ruling alliance and the Maoists said in a statement.
“But if the king creates serious hurdles to the constituent assembly elections a two-third majority of the (interim) parliament can remove the monarchy even before the polls,“ it said.
The popularity of King Gyanendra plunged when he sacked the government and assumed absolute powers in 2005 only to bow down after weeks of protest last year. The monarch has traditionally being viewed as an incarnation of the Hindu god Vishnu.
A party official on Sunday said the government will move a motion in the interim parliament to amend the provisional constitution to incorporate the agreement.
Leaders also agreed to increase the number of seats in the constituent assembly to 601 from 497. 335 of them will be elected on the basis of proportional representation, 240 on first-past-the-post basis and the rest to be nominated by the cabinet.
The Maoists had previously demanded fully proportional elections.
The twice-delayed elections will now be held within the Nepali year which ends on April 12 and the Maoists will rejoin the government, said Arjun Narsingh K.C., a spokesman for the Nepali Congress Party, the country’s biggest.
The government will decide the election dates.
Thousands of Maoist former fighters are confined to United Nations-monitored camps since last year after the government agreed for the elections, a key demand of the Maoists during the war which started in 1996.
The government will also begin the process of integrating the Maoist ex-fighters and pay their wages regularly, the statement said.
In return the Maoists will hand back the property and land seized from the people during the conflict.
“All parties must be honest to implement the agreement. Otherwise, it has no meaning,“ K.C. said after the meeting.
Mainstream political parties say the Maoists are still extorting money and intimidating political workers.

Islam Karimov

LONDON, Dec. 24--The president of Uzbekistan, Islam Karimov, has been declared the winner of Sunday’s general election.
He won 88.1% of the vote in a poll which foreign election monitors said failed to meet democratic standards, BBC reported.
Under the Uzbek constitution Karimov has already had the maximum two years in office. He has given no explanation as to why he was able to run again.
He has allowed little opposition during his 17 years in power and banned all independent parties and media groups.
Karimov faced what was largely seen as token opposition in Sunday’s election, from three virtually unknown candidates.
The president himself barely campaigned, and all the other candidates praised his running of the economy.
They did not explicitly ask Uzbeks to vote for them.
The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) said that the election was “held in a strictly controlled political environment, leaving no room for real opposition“.
“The election generally failed to meet many OSCE commitments for democratic elections,“ said a statement from the organization.
The OSCE sent only a small team of observers to monitor the elections because they said the lack of opposition rendered a larger team pointless.
Uzbekistan’s land borders were closed during the polls and people reports an increased police presence in major cities.
Foreign media is not allowed to report from inside Uzbekistan but the BBC’s Natalia Antelava, reporting from nearby Krygyzstan, said that many people were afraid to vote for anyone other than Karimov.

Former Pakistani prime minister, Benazir Bhutto, addressing the crowd during an election campaign meeting in Larkana, Dec. 23.

SUKKUR, Pakistan, Dec. 24--Pakistan’s election campaign intensified Monday with the three top political leaders traveling across the country to rally supporters and lash out at President Pervez Musharraf just two weeks before a hard-fought parliamentary poll.
The elections, demanded by Pakistan’s Western allies, are seen as a crucial step in restoring democracy here after Musharraf’s Nov. 3 declaration of emergency rule and his crackdown on the judiciary, political opponents and the independent media, reported AP.
Musharraf lifted the state of emergency after six weeks.
Former prime ministers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif, who both returned from exile for the campaign, scheduled rallies in their opponents’ home districts Monday in an effort to poach voters from each other.
Both candidates, who pledged to work together against Musharraf, were hoping to win enough seats to loosen the former army chief’s grip on power.
Sadiq ul-Farooq, a leader of Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-N party, said Musharraf was pushing for a ruling party victory in the Jan. 8 election to preserve his authority.
“Musharraf would prefer a docile prime minister to legitimize all of the actions he had taken after imposing emergency rule,“ ul-Farooq said.
“Only people like Pervez Elahi can serve in this job, and President Musharraf is fully backing him,“ he told the Associated Press. Elahi, the candidate of the Pakistan Muslim League-Q, has emerged as a potential threat to win the premiership.
Sharif, who has been banned from running for office himself, was to address voters on behalf of his party’s candidates Monday at a rally in southern Sindh province, Bhutto’s home region. Bhutto traveled Monday to Sharif’s eastern Punjab province for a large rally. Elahi was campaigning in the city of Jehlum, near his home district.
Both Sharif and Bhutto have accused Musharraf of rigging the vote in favor of the ruling party.

BANGKOK, Thailand, Dec. 24--The party aligned with ousted Thai premier Thaksin Shinawatra won the most seats in elections here but fell just short of a majority, the Election Commission said Monday after all ballots were counted.
With the unofficial results in from across the kingdom, the People Power Party (PPP) was set to win 232 of the 480 seats up for grabs in Sunday’s general election, Election Commission spokesman Ruenroj Chumsueb told AFP.
The PPP’s closest rival, the Democrat Party, looks set to win 165 seats, with five smaller parties dividing up the rest, he said.
The PPP leader Samak Sundaravej, who has said he will bring Thaksin back from his self-imposed exile in Britain, claimed victory and said he would form the next government, inviting other parties to join him in a coalition.
But the Democrat Party could still try to snatch the premiership away from the PPP by cobbling together a coalition with the five smaller parties.
Two of the minority parties--Rum Jai Thai Chart Pattana, which has nine seats, and Puea Pandin, which has 25 seats--are made up of politicians who broke away from Thaksin’s party in the wake of the 2006 coup that ousted him.
The Pracharaj party, which took only five seats, also broke away from Thaksin’s party, but the split happened months before the coup due to bitter internal feuding.
Matchima Party, which won seven seats, is made up of veteran politicians who have previously said they would not join the PPP in a coalition.
Less predictable is the Chart Thai Party, which took 37 seats.
The party is known popularly as “the eel“ because of its history of slippery alliances based more on political convenience than ideology.
Final official results are expected to be announced by the commission in January, after ballots are recounted and any complaints are investigated.
About 70 percent of Thailand’s 45.65 million voters cast ballots in the election, the commission said.

KINSHASA, DR Congo, Dec. 24--In the past week, children have been spotted marching in formation in war-wracked eastern Congo, as the recruitment of children by militia forces reaches critical levels, said a statement released by Save the Children on Monday.
“The situation for children in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo is catastrophic. Fighters from all sides are using children as frontline fodder,“ said Hussein Mursal, the Congo director for the international charity, reported AP.
Fighting in lawless eastern Congo has escalated dramatically since August, as rival rebel groups clash over the forested territory. Boys and girls are being recruited in record numbers to act as soldiers, porters, spies and sex slaves, the London-based charity said.
Those who have managed to escape have told the aid organization they were held captive in small holes in the ground.
Schools have been targeted as “rich recruitment ground“, the charity said.
Because the conflict continues to escalate, the charity, which has provided refuge to 800 child fighters this year, has not been able to return the children to their homes. It noted that “the risk of re-recruitment and physical danger from the war are so high“.
An estimated 800,000 people have fled their homes this year in eastern Congo, a lawless forested region that shares a border with Rwanda. The area has been wracked by violence for years, despite the end of a five-year war in 2002.
The continued conflict is fueled, in part, by the region’s proximity to Rwanda. Rebels accused of orchestrating Rwanda’s 1994 genocide were expelled from the country and have operated from eastern Congo.
One of those groups, the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Rwanda, is among the most active recruiters of child soldiers, according to a recent United Nations report. Its commanders are accused of organizing the killing of 500,000 people during the Rwandan slaughter 13 years ago.
The charity has been actively negotiating with the rebels for the release of the children. Those who are released are housed by aid workers in a safe place, where they are provided counseling services.