Nepal, May 10 -- What's in a word? Sometimes everything.

Take the distinction between the meaning of the words 'election victory' and 'mandate', for instance. As in, did the current governing party, the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP), get an 'election victory' or did it receive a 'mandate' in the elections?

At first sight, this question may feel like nothing more than a ponderous inquiry of a person who has nothing else to do. After all, no matter which way you look at it, the RSP secured an overwhelming majority in the Parliament. Their majority is so large that they now govern as both the ruling party and the opposition.

This is not the first time in Nepal's young democracy that a single political party has won a large majority of pa...