KATMANDU, Nepal - Nepal's provisional parliament yesterday approved a motion to abolish the monarchy, as part of efforts to underpin a fragile peace deal with former Maoist rebels.
The rebels fought a decadelong insurgency demanding an end to the monarchy. Under the compromise agreement, King Gyanendra will remain in the palace for now but will have no powers.
Lawmakers voted to make Nepal, once the world's only Hindu kingdom, a "federal democratic republican state."
The motion passed by 270 votes in the 329-seat parliament, which includes the Maoists. Three votes were cast against it and the rest abstained or were absent.
Nepal will become a republic only after the first meeting of a special assembly, which is due to be elected by mid-April, said Home Minister Krishna Prasad Sitaula. The newly elected assembly will be obliged to endorse the motion and will not have the power to amend or reject it, he said.
The vote was taken days after the government agreed to abolish the Himalayan nation's nearly 240-year-old monarchy, one of the few left in Asia. That decision ended months of political deadlock with the once-feared Maoist guerrillas.
The popularity of the monarchy has dipped ever since King Gyanendra granted himself absolute power in 2005. He bowed to weeks of bloody protests last year and handed power back to political parties.
This prompted last year's landmark deal between the government and the Maoists, ending a conflict in which more than 13,000 people died since 1996.
"We have supported the motion because it meets one of our demands for a republic and to clear the way for the elections," said Dev Gurung, deputy leader of the Maoists in parliament. "We will raise our other demands gradually."
The Maoists had been insisting on an immediate abolition of the monarchy.
But the government had rejected this. It argued such a demand went against an earlier agreement to let the elected assembly decide the fate of the king, who is traditionally considered an incarnation of Vishnu, a Hindu god.
Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala, 83, has taken over responsibility as head of state.
Officials said King Gyanendra will continue to live in the palace until after the April elections. He is then expected to move full time into his private home in Katmandu and become just another citizen of the new republic.
"But if the king creates serious hurdles in the elections, he can be removed by a two-thirds' majority of the interim parliament before the polls," the motion said.
Shrish Shumshere Rana, who was a member of the government King Gyanendra formed after he took absolute power in 2005, criticized the move.
"It is an unconstitutional drama being enacted with total impudence," he said.
