KATHMANDU, Jun 29 (AFP): Impoverished Nepal is set for more momentous change over the coming week as former Maoist rebels set about forming the newly republican nation's first post-royal government.
The ultra-leftists' leader, Prachanda, is expected to be made prime minister, taking over from the elderly, centrist politician Girija Prasad Koirala, who stepped down last week.
Prachanda, whose nom-de-guerre means "the fierce one" and who led a ten-year insurgency to overthrow the monarchy, is promising to bring sweeping change to the landlocked Himalayan nation.
"We want to bring radical change to the country," Maoist spokesman Krishna Bahadur Mahara told AFP.
"People have high hopes from us, and we have to try and fulfil their aspirations," Mahara said.
The group certainly has huge hurdles to surmount.
Already one of the poorest countries in the world and with an economy shattered by a decade of war, Nepal is being further hit by the global surge in fuel and food prices.
Last week the United Nations said rising prices had put 2.5 million people in Nepal in need of immediate food assistance and another 3.9 million at risk of becoming "food insecure."
The country has also been hit by a string of strikes after authorities were forced to raise state-set petrol, diesel and kerosene prices by up to 27 per cent.
Nepal is also blighted by corruption, a repressive caste system and a feudal land ownership structure.
On top of all these problems, the Maoists are still classed by the United States as a foreign terrorist organisation.
Political violence blamed on their youth wing, the Young Communist League, suggests the hardened jungle and mountain guerrillas have still yet to fully transform themselves into a democratic party.
