Peace Process
From the field Fate of Nepal’s Peace Process!
Nepal’s seven month-long prime ministerial election finally ended on Wednesday, 12 January 2011 when the lone PM candidate of the Nepali Congress (NC), Ram Chandra Paudel, announced the withdrawal of his candidacy shortly before the sixteenth round of voting. Paudel was running against Puspa Kamal Dahal (“Prachand”), from the Unified Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist (UCPN-M), after the previous Prime Minister, Madhav Kumar Nepal, resigned from the post in June 2010. After the seventh round of voting, Prachada withdrew his candidacy saying it was meaningless to continue to compete in an election which did not provide any result. Read more >>>
From the field When Will the Nepalese People Get a New PM?
Unfortunately the seventh round of elections for the position of Prime Minister of Nepal has once more failed to produce a result. (See my previous posts for coverage of earlier rounds in this process). One change however is that the the candidate of Unified Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist (UCPN-M), Mr. Puspa Kamal Dahal, has declared his withdrawal from the race to be PM. Mr. Dahal has made this decision following the three-point agreement with the Chairperson of the Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist and Leninist (CPN-UML). The both parties have also asked the Nepali Congress (NC) to withdraw its candidacy of the PM post too. They have claimed that for the national consensus government, both parties have to withdraw their candidates for the PM post. The three-point agreement focused on a way to break the deadlock in the PM election process and the formation of the national consensus government. Read more >>>
From the field PM Election in Nepal – A Neverending Story?
Following the three-point agreement signed by the major three political parties – Nepali Congress (NC), Communist Party of Nepal (CPN-UML) and Unified Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist (UCPN-M) on the midnight of 28 May 2010, PM Madhav Kumar Nepal resigned from the post of the PM a few weeks ago. The president has asked to Mr. Nepal to run a caretaker government until the new government is formed. According to the interim constitution of Nepal, the President called on the political parties to form a consensus government within a week. The political parties were unable to form the consensus government, even after being given an extended five days to do so. After the efforts to form the consensus government had failed, the president called for the formation of a majority government through voting in the parliament, based on the other provision in the interim constitution. Read more >>>
From the field An Extension for the Constituent Assembly in Nepal, but the Problems Remain
It is very hard to wait for news when you know that something really meaningful and important is about to happen; we in Nepal experienced this last Friday, May 28 – the last day of the two-year term for the Constituent Assembly (CA) Read more >>>
From the field High Level Political Mechanism (HLPM) Formed in Nepal
A ‘High Level Political Mechanism’ (HLPM) has been formed in Nepal, tasked with moving the country forward from the political impasse in the peace process and the writing of a new constitution. The HLPM is under the co-ordination of the President of the Nepali Congress, Girija Prasad Koirala, and the other two members are Prachad, the President of the United Communist Party of Nepal – UCPN (Maoist), and Jhalanath Khanal, the president of Communist Party of Nepal-United Marxist Leninist (CPN-UML). Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal is the invitee member in the mechanism. The first meeting of the HLPM held on January 19 which constituted a six-member taskforce to prepare its Terms of Reference (TOR) and working procedure within three days. Read more >>>
From the field Holy Cows in Kashmir
On December 4 2009, Fazal Haq Qureshi, 65 year old separatist leader from the moderate separatist alliance of Hurriyat was attacked by unknown assailants. Perceived as an ‘honest peace broker and negotiator’ between the government and separatist clan, he had almost four decades ago laid the foundation of a secessionist movement in Jammu and Kashmir. The attack on him was seen as a stern warning to all those who were ‘selling out on Kashmir’. Read more >>>
From the field Update on the Nepal Peace Process
With the end of three-day general strike called by United Communist Party of Nepal, Maoist (UCPN-Maoist), December 20-22, the party has concluded the third phase of agitation against the President’s move to reinstate the Army Chief of Staff. At the same time, the UCPN-Maoist has announced an awareness-raising campaign for the forth phase of agitation. This phase is for a month and going to finish on January 24. The party has warned that if the government fails to address civilian supremacy, it will begin an indefinite general strike from January 25, 2010. Read more >>>
