The countdown for cornered King Gyanendra began on Friday with the Election Commission moving towards the official declaration of the April 10 election results.
Under the constitution, within three weeks the newly elected 601-member constituent assembly will hold its first meeting. The assembly will then implement last year’s parliamentary decision that seeks to abolish the nearly 250-year-old monarchy for a federal republic.
“There will be no compromise with the king,” said Prachanda, chief of the winner Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist. “All manifestations of monarchy will end and a republic will come into existence.”
When it became clear that the Maoists were going to win the poll by a huge margin, the Maoist leadership held consultations with the chief of the biggest royalist party — which fought in support of the monarchy and lost.
Kamal Thapa, King Gyanendra’s home minister, failed to win any seat in the 240 directly contested seats. But his party was saved from annihilation by the second phase of the election.
Prachanda met Thapa to convey a message to the king: “The intention was to facilitate the exit of the king after the country rooted for a republic.”
“The royalists agreed to convey the message to the king. But we do not know what his reaction was,” said Maoist leader Chandra Prakash Gajurel, in charge of the party’s foreign affairs.
The Maoists, who have won about 220 of the 601 seats, say the king will have to leave the Narayanhity Palace and return to his private residence where he had stayed as a mere prince.
King’s future
“If he leaves the palace voluntarily, we will ensure the protection of his right to live in the country as a distinguished citizen,” said another Maoist leader, Baburam Bhattarai.
While moderates among the Maoists agree the king’s family can enjoy civic and cultural rights after becoming ordinary citizens, the hardliners oppose any privilege to the royals, once regarded as divine beings.
Gajurel said a new commission will assess King Gyanendra’s properties.