Things are getting rather strange in Nepal, now in the seventh year of a very convoluted peace process.
The constituent assembly, elected in 2008, is now way past its legal expiry date (extended several times) and political parties have been thrashing around for months trying to agree on what to do.
The latest wheeze, suggested by the ruling Maoists, is for the current coalition to stand down, and the chief justice of the supreme court to somehow become prime minister. Khil Raj Regmi would then oversee new elections.
Two former senior diplomats have warned that the chief justice would be in a constitutionally improper situation. He ‘will be a defendant, for instance, in the case filed by Bharat Mani Jangam questioning the constitutionality of his appointment as prime minister’.
Murari Sharma and Bhagirath Basnet note that the judges hearing this case would be aware that the chief justice would be back as their superior within months….
The breakaway Maoist party (the Real Maoists?) protested against the chief justice’s appointment with a general strike that paralysed much of the country on 19 February.
As PN went to press, it looked as if the ‘chief justice’ solution to the constitutional impasse was going to be implemented, despite last-minute efforts by the Maoists to tie the move to an amnesty for crimes committed during the civil war.