Nepal’s Fragile Daw

Biswas Baral

Source Link

This festive season, a mix of hope and unease has taken hold of Nepal.

Following the ouster of the K.P. Sharma Oli government in the wake of the Gen Z uprising, a new interim government has been formed under former Chief Justice Sushila Karki. Few regret the fall of the unpopular Oli or the rise of a clean figure like Karki. But lack of clarity on the road ahead also adds to people’s anxiety.

The new government has the singular mandate of holding nationwide elections on March 5, 2026. Ensuring the participation of a broad range of political actors in the elections would be the biggest challenge to ending the post-revolt transition.

As unpopular as their top leaders are, the established political parties – the Nepali Congress, the Communist Party Nepal–Unified Marxist-Leninist (CPN-UML) and the CPN Maoist Center – are still major stakeholders in Nepali politics. The involvement of – and thus the endorsement of – these three biggest parties in the outgoing Parliament will be vital for the legitimacy of elections.

But the parties are yet to welcome the new regime under the ex-chief justice. Instead, they have called for a reversal of the unconstitutional dissolution of Parliament. There is no provision in the national charter for someone from outside Parliament to be prime minister – much less to dissolve the house.

The old parties face a dilemma. Their aging and unpopular leaders remain in place. It will be hard for these parties to choose new leaders in time for elections only six months away. Even if they somehow pick new leaders, will these parties be ready to contest elections so soon after the uprising – at a time when the public sentiment is firmly against them?

The three forces have alternately led the government since the promulgation of the new constitution in 2015. Before Karki came to power, eight governments had been formed since 2015 – all of them led by either Sher Bahadur Deuba (head of the Congress), K.P. Oli (the CPN-UML) or Pushpa Kamal Dahal (the Maoist Center). All these regimes were notorious for their odious promotion of corruption and nepotism.