KATHMANDU (AFP) — Nepal's ex-rebel Maoists have taken a surprise early lead in elections to rebuild the country after a bloody civil war and create a republic, results showed on Saturday.
Full results of the impoverished Himalayan nation's polls -- a dual first-past-the-post and proportional representation system -- will not be known for at least a week.
But five Maoists have been already been declared winners, giving the former guerrillas room for hope they would exceed the 15 percent of total votes diplomats and analysts had forecast.
"As of Saturday morning, the Maoists are leading in 56 of 102 constituencies currently being counted," election commission spokesman Laxman Bhattarai spokesman told AFP.
In the capital, hundreds of Maoist supporters staged impromptu victory rallies, waving hammer-and-sickle flags, shouting Maoist slogans and throwing red celebratory powder to celebrate their early wins.
"We're a new party and we don't have any experience in elections but the way things are working out we're very excited," said Rajkaji Maharajan, the 29-year-old Maoist victor in Kathmandu's Laliptur district.
"We're ready to lead the nation if people give us the mandate," he said.
The Maoists spent a decade fighting the national army in a deadly insurgency to topple the nation's monarchy that claimed at least 13,000 lives.
But in 2006 they signed up for peace with mainstream parties, and last Thursday's polls -- the climax of the peace process -- were held to elect a 601-seat assembly to rewrite the constitution and likely sack King Gyanendra and abolish the monarchy.
"It's a great moment for me to be a part of the Maoists' victory," said Ratna Maharajan, a 36-year-old grocery shop-owner.
"I hope they don't turn out to be like all the old parties," said the grocer, referring to the two biggest parties -- the centrist Nepali Congress and left-of-centre Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist- Leninist) which is regarded as communist in name only.
The strong early showing by the Maoists was regarded as unexpected by observers.
"Of course it's a surprise," said a Western diplomat on condition of anonymity. "We were expecting around 10 to 20 percent, we heard they were unpopular, but the reality has turned out to be different."
Maoist warlord turned statesman Prachanda -- whose nom-de-guerre means "the fierce one" -- said in an interview in December 2006 he was willing to be president of a future republic "if the masses want to give me the responsibility."
The Maoists' transition from feared guerrillas to a mainstream party has not been smooth, and they came in for a barrage of criticism for their conduct in the poll build-up, accused of using threats and violence to intimidate voters.
The Maoists are still classed by Washington as foreign "terrorists" but they have promised to accept the poll results -- if they consider them to be fair.
"Given a choice we would like peace. Our form of struggle has changed," the ultra-leftist's second-in-command Baburam Bhattarai told AFP before the polls.
But if the elections were seen to be rigged "people will be forced to resist again," he said.
"The army is still controlled by the king. If they try to stop us from implementing revolutionary change in the society, we will have to resist that."
The pre-election period was marred by violence that left at least eight people dead, but the elections were relatively peaceful with around 60 percent of the 17.6 million voters turning out, the election commission has said.
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