Nepal’s Chief Justice Khil Raj Regmi Heads Interim Government

Nepal has been in a constitutional crisis for the past 10 months. Amidst cries for a new constitution and a new election, the country’s leaders have agreed to install Chief Justice Khil Raj Regmi as the prime minister of an interim cabinet. Besides Regmi, President Ram Baran Yadav also swore in two retired senior officials as members of the Cabinet.

Functions of the Interim Government

The Cabinet will be running the government until a new government is formed after the election. In the meantime, the interim prime minister and cabinet’s main task will be to make sure that there will be an election by June 11. While serving in the interim government, Regmi will also retain his post as Chief Justice, but will not be sitting on the court. Regmi will keep the post of prime minister until a new functioning government is formed. The elected members of the legislature will also function as the Constituent Assembly with the task of writing a new constitution.

Legal challenges have been filed in court regarding the constitutionality of the Chief Justice concurrently being the Prime Minister. According to the President of the Nepal Bar Association, Hari Krishna Karki, this is “against the principles of constitutionalism and separation of power in a democracy.” A breakaway Maoist faction has been more vocal against the appointment, and had called for a general strike. There were protestors outside the presidential palace while Chief Justice Regmi was being sworn into office. There were several injuries reported due during the protest, when the protestors clashed with the police.

Nepal Politics and Government

Nepal abolished the monarchy in 2008, since then the country has wrestled with issues about the new constitution. The politicians have been wrangling and negotiating with each other over the new form of government. In May, 2010, the Government dissolved the Assembly after it was unable to decide how much power the country’s regions would have according to the Constitution.

The new Nepal Government is a parliamentary system. The Nepal President is largely a government figurehead. The Government is ran by the Prime Minister and his Cabinet and the laws are formulated by the legislature.

The appointment of the Chief Justice to the interim post was first suggested by a member of the ruling Maoist party. The political crisis stemmed from the lack of confidence the other parties had on the impartiality of an election while outgoing Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai was in power. Prime Minister Bhattarai had posted on his Twitter account that the Chief Justice “is regarded world over as most impartial, free & fair.”

Nepal was in the midst of a civil war until 2006, when the Maoists rebel agreed to continue their struggle via peaceful means, by becoming a recognized political party. The decades long civil war resulted in more than 16,000 people dead. After the civil war, the ensuing peace process included elections to the Constituent Assembly to write a constitution, the abolition of the Nepal monarchy, and the integration of the national armed forces with the Maoist rebel army. The other conditions that have hindered the formation of a working government stemmed from the country’s intended federal set-up. The division of power between the regions have led to continuous political squabbling between the country’s major political parties.