Nepalis evenly divided over monarchy's future

Kathmandu, Sep 22: Nepalis are evenly divided over the future of the monarchy, with nearly half wanting the king to play no role in the Himalayan nation in future, a poll showed today.

Nepal's King Gyanendra seized absolute power last year but was forced to hand it back to an interim government in April after weeks of pro-democracy protests. Since then he has been stripped of most of his remaining powers.

Maoists rebels and some mainstream politicians want Nepal to become a republic, but other political parties argue he should retain a ceremonial role.

A survey of 3,000 people conducted in the month from Aug. 6 showed 48 per cent favoured some form of monarchy, while 49 per cent of respondents said they saw no role for the king.

Nepal's king was traditionally revered as an incarnation of Lord Vishnu, one of Hinduism's trinity of gods.

But the reputation of the monarchy dived after a royal massacre in 2001, when King Birendra and eight other royals were shot and killed by the crown prince, who then turned his gun on himself.

It sank further after Birendra's successor Gyanendra seized power from the country's fractious political parties but failed to make progress in ending a decade-old Maoist insurgency or stamping out widespread corruption and misrule.

The government and the Maoist rebels, who have been fighting the monarchy for a decade, plan to hold elections next year to a new assembly that is supposed to write a new constitution and set out the future of the monarchy.

The poll was conducted in 66 of Nepal's 75 administrative districts by the local office of the US-based National Democratic Institute and market research company AC Nielsen.

The findings also showed that if elections were held today, the centrist Nepali Congress Party and the Communist Party of Nepal-UML would each get 25 per cent of the vote.

The two parties are the biggest in the seven-party alliance which rules Nepal and led April's protests against the king.

Maoist rebels would have a ''strong third place showing'' with 15 per cent of the vote, the survey said.

Eighty-nine per cent of the people thought Nepal, wracked by years of violence and political turmoil, was headed in the right direction.

Reuters