By Owen Heimsoth | NEPAL

Nepal, a country bordering China and India, has chosen communists in their first election after centuries of being a monarchy.

The United Marxist Leninists (UML) and the Maoist Centre have taken control of not just the federal government in Nepal but lead in 6 of the 7 provinces of Nepal. Their GDP per capita is a measly $837, which makes them one of the poorest countries in the word.

The two communist parties are currently in talks to unite as one party. They are currently just partners. The Maoists were formerly coalition partners with the Nepali Congress, a left-leaning party, but ditched them in favor of the UML. This allowed for the communists to have a majority in the newly formed government.

None of the seven provinces formed in the new 2015 Nepal constitution were given formal names, but “Provence No. 2” was the only one of seven provinces to not elect parties not led by either of the communist parties. The proposed name of this province is “Janakpur.”

The “most-likely” next Prime Minister is tipped to be Khadga Prasad Oli. He served as PM for just under a year after being elected in October 2015 and resigning in August 2016. He currently serves as the leader of the United Marxist Leninists.

Vote counting isn’t completely completed for the parliament, but the communist win is almost guaranteed. They ran on the platform of helping the working class. Of course, most of Nepal is in the working class. Which of course, is most of the country. Over 30% of the country lives in poverty and 80% depend on farming to make their money.

Communism still continues to not work. North Korean and Venezuelan citizens are struggling to stay alive. Those are also countries with significant natural resources. North Korea is sitting on trillions in natural resources and Venezuela has some of the largest oil reserves in the world. They could be successful countries but communism/socialism has put them into ruins. What does Nepal have? Not much.

Communism surely isn’t the way to build up a country out of extreme poverty. Nepal’s status as a weak and poor country is likely to continue as long as communists are in charge.

Advertisements

Like this: Like Loading...