Nepal’s Parties to Form Coalition; Maoists Go Into Opposition

By Paul Tighe

May 18 (Bloomberg) – Nepal’s political parties agreed to form a coalition government, sending the former rebel Maoists into opposition just a year after they won most parliamentary seats in general elections in the Himalayan country.

    Madhav Kumar Nepal, leader of the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist), is expected to become prime minister after 22 parties agreed to form the coalition, Nepalnews.com reported yesterday from the capital, Kathmandu.

    Puspa Kamal Dahal, the former rebel leader, resigned two weeks ago as prime minister after a dispute with the army over integrating his former fighters into the military as part of a 2006 peace accord that ended the insurgency. The new coalition wants to disrupt the peace process, Dahal said yesterday.

    Dahal took office in August after his Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) formed a coalition government. The collapse of his administration is delaying writing a new constitution for Nepal after lawmakers a year ago voted to scrap the  240-year-old monarchy and turn the country into a republic.

    “On the surface, it looks like an attempt to bring down the Maoist-led government,” Dahal told supporters in Kathmandu yesterday, according to Nepalnews.com. “Their intention is to disrupt the peace process. They want to push the country into disarray.”

    The Maoists will “fight peacefully to make sure that the new constitution is drafted and the peace process concluded,” he said.

    Stepped Down

    Dahal stepped down when President Ram Baran Yadav rejected his decision to fire the army chief of staff for refusing to integrate former rebel fighters into the military.

    Yadav said he will accept a new government formed by a coalition that has a majority of lawmakers in the 601-seat National Assembly.

    The Unified Marxist Leninist-led coalition has the support of 350 lawmakers including members of the Nepali Congress, the second largest group in parliament, Nepalnews.com said.

    Parties sent members’ signatures backing the coalition to the parliamentary speaker to avoid disruptions in the assembly by Maoist lawmakers.

    The Maoists have prevented parliamentary business by chanting slogans and blocking the speaker’s chair to demand the president rescind his decision to reinstate the army chief.

    The speaker may decide today when parliament will meet to vote in the new administration, Nepalnews.com said.
    About 23,000 former rebels are confined to United Nations- supervised camps as part of the peace agreement that ended the civil war in which more than 13,000 people were killed. The army rejects their integration, saying the fighters won’t become non- partisan soldiers.