By IANS
Kathmandu : Faced with an unprecedented crisis as it called off a crucial election scheduled for November, Nepal’s increasingly nervous government said it would call a special session of parliament next week to seal King Gyanendra’s fate and resolve the standoff with the Maoists.
After Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala called an emergency meeting of his cabinet Friday morning to plan strategy to deal with the fallout of the postponement of the elections that was to have decided the fate of the monarchy, Minister for General Administration Ram Chandra Yadav said a special session of the interim parliament would be called Oct 11.
The special session of the house is being convened after a demand by the Maoists to do so.
The rebels, who have remained deadlocked in a growingly bitter dispute with Koirala, are trying to force the government’s hand over King Gyanendra.
Nepal’s constitution allows the monarchy to be scrapped without any fuss if two-thirds of the MPs vote for the proposal.
The guerrillas had been urging Koirala to use this provision and declare Nepal a republic before the Nov 22 election.
However, the prime minister had been resisting the demand on grounds that it would not be considered legitimate by the international community.
The rebels also want a fully proportional representation for the election instead of the mixed system though they themselves had once agreed to the latter.
But the special session may add fuel to the raging fire instead of putting it out.
There are currently 327 MPs and the Maoists would need to get the vote of 218 members to see their dream of abolishing the monarchy before the election comes true.
But Koirala’s Nepali Congress party, which is resisting abolishing monarchy through a house vote and wants the decision to be left to the November election, can block the move since it is the largest party with 132 MPs.
Though the Maoists are the second largest party, they have only 84 MPs. While they have got three more MPs from fringe communist parties, they are still far short of the magic figure.
If they lose the vote, the Maoists could to take to the streets with a fresh protest programme.
Already protests have started pouring in from other parties and civil society at the postponement of polls against public desire.
The Rastriya Jana Morcha, a communist party, called it a betrayal while a prominent human rights defender, Mathura Shrestha, said it was a “killer” decision.