• Country initiatives

Country initiatives

The April 2006 mass protests known as Jana Andolan II, in which at least three to four million Nepalis participated, marked the beginning of a journey towards a new Nepali democratic state. The overwhelming consensus among the people was to transform the country into a republic. Today, the Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist has abandoned its decade-long armed insurgency, jettisoned its original ideological goal of establishing a one party People's Democracy, and is now eagerly looking forward to assuming its role in the new Nepal. This document studies the state of democracy in Nepal.

The paper findings include:

• Nepalis have never experienced an election to the Constitutional Assembly (CA). So a large portion of the Nepali population don’t understand its academic and technical meaning; they do, however, sense that the CA is somehow associated with their aspiration.
• People’s preference for a republic is on the rise, and their opinion against the institution of monarchy has been influenced by decisions taken by political parties and the government in the post- Jana Andolan II period.
• The CPN-Maoist’s laying down of arms, entering into a peace agreement, agreeing to the subsequent power sharing arrangement and its public affirmation of its commitment to multiparty democracy have made many people and the elite believe that the CPN-Maoist is committed to multiparty democracy. Some, however, doubt its intentions.
• The interim parliament with the consensus of the eight-political parties declared Nepal a secular state, and the interim government also proclaimed that it would adopt a federal form of government in the new Constitution, which will be framed after the election of the Constituency Assembly. But the majority of the surveyed citizens want Nepal to be a Hindu and unitary state.

The paper conclusions include:

• Nepal is in a state of transition. The political actors in Nepal must use this transitory period to formulate a vision for Nepal’s future, and they must create a road map that will take Nepal to the destination thus envisioned
  
• There is a broad consensus among the various political players about the path that Nepal must now take; they all agree on the national agenda of restructuring the Nepali state through the creation of a new Constitution that will be framed after the election of the CA and agreeing to the overall vision has not created much of a problem among the political players.
  

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