Nepal gets new leader, but future still jittery - Christian Science Monitor

Kathmandu, Nepal

Nepal got a functioning prime minister after seven months of leadership vacuum on Thursday, but analysts refused to call it a breakthrough and remained jittery about the future of the country’s stalled peace process.

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Jhala Nath Khanal, the chief of a moderate communist party, Unified Marxist Leninist (UML), was elevated to the post after 16 rounds of voting. He got last-minute backing from the Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), which fought a 10-year war against state forces until 2006.

While a step forward after months of embarrassing votes, the formation of a government is just a small step toward political stability in Nepal, which confronts the serious challenges of settling the future of some 19,000 Maoist combatants and drawing up a new constitution. And analysts say that the new coalition threatens to cause a left-leaning polarization and an escalation of ambitions of the Maoists, who are now in a position to oust the new prime minister at will.

The previous government was backed by the moderate Nepali Congress party and several ethnic parties, making it less receptive to Maoist demands. Those demands include radical land reforms, subservience of the judiciary to the legislature, and a constitutional provision of banning "antinationalist’" political parties.

Mr. Kanal is considered far more sympathetic to Maoist agendas.

“The coalition might trigger a fragmentation in Nepal’s politics,” warns Yubaraj Ghimire, political commentator and former editor of the Kathmandu Post. “Depending on how the Maoists behave, a tussle between Nepal Army and democratic forces on the one side, and the ruling coalition on the other side, is possible,” he adds.

Others are even gloomier in their assessment.

“The only achievement of Thursday’s election is that the parliament replaced a caretaker prime minister with a functioning prime minister,” says Bhimarjun Acharya, a columnist and constitutional lawyer. “I don’t expect the formation of a new government to inject any momentum into the constitution writing effort."

The Nepali Congress party said on Friday that it felt betrayed by UML forming an alliance with the Maoists. The previous government was supported by the Nepali Congress, which had expected UML to support to their prime ministerial candidate.

The future of ex-combatants and a new constitution was supposed to have been resolved by last May. But a power struggle that has gripped the country since a special assembly was elected in April, 2008, hindered progress.

The assembly’s life was extended, and just four months remain before the extended deadline expires. A UN mission that was monitoring the combatants, who are corralled in 28 camps, left the country Jan. 15.

Mr. Acharya, the lawyer, terms Thursday’s surprise coalition announcement unnatural. “It was just an expression of anger and frustration of the Maoists. After being unable to gather support for getting elected himself, Maoist chairman Prachanda wanted to teach India a lesson by elevating someone not favored by India to power,” he says.

Prachanda admitted while addressing the parliament on Thursday that he had decided to withdraw his own candidacy and support Khanal to prove that Nepal can make its own decisions, a clear reference to Indian influence (often termed here as interference) in Nepal’s politics.

His support could complicate Khanal's ability to function. Khanal's UML party leadership is dominated by liberal communists who do not want to promote the Maoist agenda. Khanal will face the twin challenge of tempering the liberals in his own party and continuing to get support of the Maoist party.

Narayan Wagle, editor-in-chief of Nagarik, a leading Nepali daily, echoed similar concerns in an opinion piece published Friday. “The success of the new government will depend on whether the Maoists use Mr. Khanal as their puppet," he wrote, "or help him complete the peace process and constitution writing.”

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Election of New Leader in Nepal Brings Hope of Peace - Voice of America

Anjana Pasricha | New Delhi  February 04, 2011

Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist Leninist) Chairman Jhalanath Khanal arrives at parliament in Kathmandu, February 2, 2011

Nepal has elected a new prime minister, following a seven month political stalemate.  The new leadership is expected to revive Nepal's languishing peace process.

Jhalanath Khanal was elected as prime minister following a last minute decision by the Maoist party’s candidate, Prachanda, to withdraw was elected as prime minister on Thursday evening by lawmakers following a last minute decision by the Maoist party’s candidate, Prachanda, to withdraw from the race.

It was the 17th time that parliament met to choose a new leader after the resignation of the previous prime minister last June. Since then, Nepal has been in a political vacuum due to the inability of its fractious political parties to decide on a leader.   

Jhalanath Khanal belongs to the UML, United Marxist-Leninist, party, which is allied to the Maoists. The Maoists are the largest party in a divided parliament.

Yuvraj Ghimire, a political analyst in Kathmandu, says the new prime minister faces many challenges.

Ghimire says Nepal’s new leader will have to restore better governance and speed up the task of drafting a new constitution for the country.

"After all it is a hung parliament and there is just four months left for the new constitution to be delivered to the country. In addition, the country’s economic situation, law and order situation, and general sense of security is very, very bad," Ghimire said.

Prime Minister Khanal, whose UML party is the third largest in parliament, has appealed for the support of all political parties. He says the country can only make the transition to peace and prosperity on the basis of national consensus.  

Political analysts say the new Prime Minister will have to work out a common agenda with both the Maoists and the opposition Congress party.

The task will not be easy in a country where the peace process has been stalled by deep differences between the country’s political parties. The peace process began in 2006, when Maoist guerrillas ended a decade-long civil war. But the parties disagree both on the shape of the new constitution and on the future of about 19,000 former Maoist fighters who are living in camps.  

The new prime minister has warned lawmakers that they must consolidate the progress made since the civil war ended or once again be plunged into crisis.

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Nepal to get new govt after president's return - Times of India

KATHMANDU: Nepal's ruling communist party, whose chairman Jhalanath Khanal was elected the republic's new prime minister after a seven-month-long crisis, said on Friday that the new premier would take oath of office after the President, Dr Ram Baran Yadav, returned from his 10-day visit to India on Saturday.

The presidential visit will give Khanal, a former school teacher, time to come up with a small cabinet by Sunday, when the new government is likely to be sworn in. Though the 61-year-old urged the political parties supporting him not to sit in opposition, the Nepali Congress, his former ally, however ruled out joining Khanal's government. Nepali Congress president Sushil Koirala, flaying Khanal's last-minute poll alliance with the Maoists, called it a ploy by the former rebels to capture power and said his party would support the new government issue-wise, depending on their merits and demerits.

But an ethnic party from the Terai plains – the Madhesi Janadhikar Forum – on Friday said it could join Khanal's government. Though the Forum had supported Khanal's rival from the plains, Bijay Kumar Gachhedar, on the eve of the prime ministerial election, it had however skipped the vote. It was another salutary lesson for Nepal's feuding parties as the Forum had been split by Gacchedar in 2009 because he had wanted to join a communist-led government while party chief Upendra Yadav had supported the Maoists.

As Khanal's residence in Dallu experienced a carnival with supporters and well-wishers flocking in to congratulate him, conspicuous among the well-wishers was the Chinese ambassador to Nepal, Qiu Guohong. Khanal said both Indian Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, who congratulated him on phone last night, and the Chinese envoy told him that they wanted to improve and expand ties with Nepal. Khanal said he himself too wanted that and his government would seek equi-distance from both Nepal's giant neighbours.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon hailed the election of a new PM, saying the UN stood ready to support all efforts to complete the country's peace process, including the adoption of a new constitution by May 28.

"The Secretary-General... believes this development will give a significant boost to efforts to fully implement their outstanding commitments under the Comprehensive Peace Accord and the interim constitution, notably the integration and rehabilitation of the Maoist combatants, democratization of the army and adoption of a new constitution," a statement issued by his office in New York said.

The Maoists, fighting a feud among themselves with a faction opposing the union with Khanal, began consultations about who they would send to the cabinet. Media reports said their former minister Krishna Bahadur Mahara, who last year torpedoed Prachanda's chance of winning the election after he was recorded during a phone conversation as seeking money from a Chinese businessman to buy MPs' votes, is rumoured to be the new deputy prime minister as well as foreign minister.

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