PRAMOD K. KANTHA Nepal and Bhutan in 2013 A Year of Elections ABSTRACT The political stalemate-ptevailing in Nepal since the dissolution of the first Constit- uent Assembly (CA) in 2012 ended with the second CA polls in November. Bhutan's second parliamentary elections in July and the opposition People's Democratic Party's victory over the outgoing Druk Phuensum Tshogpa (Bhutan Peace and Prosperity Party) were signs of consolidation of Bhutan's nascent democracy. KEYWORDS: second Constituent Assembly elections, Nepal, Bhutan, parliamen- tary elections. New Delhi NEPAL Limbo defined Nepal's political scene in 2013. Ever since the dissolution of the first Constituent Assembly (CA) in May 2012,^ Nepal's political leaders have been jockeying for power. Acting as a caretaker government since the CA dissolution, the coalition between the United Communist Party of Nepal- Maoist (UCPN-Maoist) and the Madhesi of the southern plains^ led by Prime Minister K. P. Bhattarai clung to power until March 2013. The coalition fiercely resisted demands from Nepal's main opposition parties, the Nepali Congress (NC) and the Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist Leninist (CPN-UML), to resign and allow the formation of a national unity govern- ment. On March 14, Nepal's four major political forces—the UCPN-Maoist, PRAMOD K. KANTHA is Associate Professor of Political Science at Wright State University, Dayton, Ohio. Dr. Kantha would like to thank Dean Kristin Sobolik of the Coüege of Liberal Arts, Wright State University, for her support for research on Nepal. Email: <pramod.kantha@wright.edu>. 1. Nepal held its first CA elections in April 2008. Elected for a two-year term, the CA gave itself several extensions until Nepal's Supreme Court set May 27 as a deadline for it to deliver a constitution or dissolve. 2. Historically marginalized, the Madhesi live in the southern plains region of Nepal bordering India. In 2007, a violent Madhesi uprising in the plains demanding greater representation catapulted the group into a prominent position in national politics. Asian Survey, Vol. 54, Number i, pp. 206-213. ÍSSN 0004-4687, electronic ISSN 1533-838X. © 2014 by the Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. Please direct all requests for permission to photocopy or reproduce article content through the University of California Press's Rights and Permissions website, http://www.ucpressjotirnals.com/reprintlnfo.asp. DOI: 10.1525/AS.2014.54.1.206. 206