KATHMANDU - Election officials say leader of Nepal's bloody Maoist insurgency has won a seat in the new Constituent Assembly that will chart the Himalayan country's future.
Prachanda, who goes by one name, led what appeared to be a powerful Maoist showing in Thursday's election.
He received nearly twice as many votes as his closest competitor in a constituency in the capital, Kathmandu.
Election officials say the Maoists have taken 20 out of 34 constituencies where vote counting has been completed. The assembly will draft a new constitution that is expected to abolish Nepal's centuries-old monarchy.
Other early returns gave the Nepali Congress party six seats and the United Marxist-Leninists five. Three seats went to two smaller parties.
A complete count of votes for all 601 seats in Nepal's 240 constituencies is expected to take weeks due to the country's rugged, mountainous terrain.
The former leader of the 10-year-long communist insurgency - which claimed the lives of more than 13,000 people - was covered with flower garlands by supporters who chanted slogans hailing his victory.
"This victory is a command by the Nepali people to establish lasting peace," Prachanda told reporters. "We are fully committed to the peace process and multiparty democracy and to rebuild this country."
Hundreds of Prachanda's followers crowded the Birendra Convention Centre in the capital where the votes were counted, waving red-and-white flags bearing the hammer and sickle.
"I want to assure the international community, especially India and China ... that we will have good relations with them and work to secure all co-operation for Nepal," Prachanda said.
Former U.S. president Jimmy Carter, whose Carter Center sent 62 observers to monitor the election, said the results indicated a major transition for Nepal.
"If the Maoists do gain a substantial share of power, I hope the United States will recognize and do business with the government," Carter said at a news conference in Kathmandu.
Carter described the election as one of the "most profoundly important" of the 70 he has witnessed because it marked the end of a decade of political violence and the probable transformation of Nepal from a Hindu kingdom to a democratic republic.
The election has been touted as the cornerstone of the 2006 peace deal struck between the government and the Maoists. The agreement followed months of unrest that forced Nepal's king to cede absolute power.
Scattered shootings and clashes that killed two people on election day and eight others in the days leading up to the poll did not deter millions of Nepalis from casting ballots in the Himalayan country's first election in nine years.
Members of Nepal's Maoist movement - still considered a terrorist group by the United States - were already predicting victory.
"We will get a clear majority in the final results," said Hisila Yami, a senior member of the Maoist party and a minister in the coalition government.
"People have chosen us to lead the country," she said. "This is a reflection of the people's desire for a republic that our party has always stood for."
The Election Commission said there would be repolling in at least 60 locations because of voting irregularities, and the number could rise as election complaints are investigated.
Several candidates have claimed their supporters were barred from voting by rival groups and have complained of election fraud.
