At the time of writing this post, the Maoists are leading in the vote count, followed by the Congress and the UML. My first read  on the opportunities and challenges that lie ahead, some of which might be affected by the final outcome of the elections, others will hold true regardless of the outcome.

(1)Hold your horses:  This is just the Constituent Assembly election - dont expect sweeping changes, peace and prosperity just yet. This assembly's purpose is to draft and approve a new constitution. Political stability and concrete economic development is still a long ways away - at least till after the general elections which are  two years away

(2) Monarchy: Going, going, gone?: Inspite of the Congresses official commitment to abolish the monarchy, the outcome of the election will decide which way this goes. If the Maoists and the left emerge stronger that expected (hold a combined 60 -65% of the seats), the Congress will not salvage the Monarchy. The interesting thing to watch for is whether the house will vote on the future of the monarchy during it's first sitting as mandated by the interim constitution or if that vote will be deferred to later. Should the vote be deferred and the parties perform poorly in government, we might end up with a ceremonial monarchy with either a minor or an adult King.

(3) Federalism: Which way will the country be organized administratively and politically? Is a Congress/UML majority  more likely to keep the basic structures of the current state more or less intact than a Maoist/Janjati/Madesi one? It  will be interesting to watch the kind of alliances  form on the floor of the house when it comes to issues like federalism and monarchy. Too many concessions to the Madesis and Janjatis could result in a backlash from the rest that would only benefit the King or Congress

(4) PLA and arms: Pressure will mount to completely disband  the PLA and or merge all or parts of it into the NA. If the Maoists do well in this election but dont win outright and come to believe that having the PLA and YCL around contributed to whatever votes they got, they might be more reluctant. Same thing if they do poorly. On the other hand,  if they do fairly well and reach close to a majority but dont get one,  the Moaist leadership could use it's electoral performance as a justification for assimilating the PLA back into the population arguing they can now afford to chose the ballot over the bullet

Arms in the Terai amongst groups like the JTMM and other ethno-centric outfits will continue to be a cause of concern unless the Congress and UML crush the Terai based parties in the elections which seems unlikely to happen.

Just some initial thoughts.