The Wall Street Journal reports that hardliners have threatened to derail elections to the Nepali constituent assembly unless, among other things, their demand for ‘full’ proportional representation is met.

The ceasefire has held, the peace process is on track and the country is preparing for the polls in November that will elect an assembly to draft a new constitution. For the first time in Nepal’s history, the elections will be on a mixed-proportional system, so traditionally marginalized ethnic groups and castes will have some representation. That all this has been achieved with little bloodshed is remarkable…

…The Maoist leader, Chairman Prachanda, faces mounting pressure from radicals who blame him for “abandoning the revolution.” As if to appease the hardliners he presented a list of 22 demands on Aug. 24 that he said had to be fulfilled before elections. These include parliament declaring Nepal a republic before polls and conducting elections under full proportional representation.

There’s fear (not only among Maoist rebels) that various factions won’t receive maximum seat shares as the country sits down to write a constitution. Or maybe there’s uncertainty about the sizes of voting blocs, and the Maoists want a predictable electoral system.

“Full proportional representation” presumably means some form of list system.

Fruits and Votes reported in January that a non-compensatory SMD tier might have been a demand of the “rural-based Maoists,” who might have looked forward to a seat bonus in malapportioned districts. If that were true, either the tables have turned, or information flows are murky.

What’s going on with those districts, eh?