THE ARISTOCRATS! (or the reader's digest version of the last 15 years of nepali politics)

starting to blog again resolution: do not fear the short and mediocre in posts.

now, i'm not an expert, but i do try to keep my finger on the pulse of just what is going on in nepali politics. it is absolutely fascinating, for the most part. as a (really) brief rundown: 1991 was really the first true seated multiparty parliament (a sort of royal parliamentary system with the king in place) since nepal was "unified" in 1768. after a series of schisms, the Communist Party Nepal-Moaist (CPN-M) began a civil war in 1996 to topple the monarchy (among other things) that lasted for 10 years in which about 12000 people died. in 2001, the crown prince went on a shooting spree (conspiracy theories abound) and killed most of his family and himself, leaving his significantly less popular uncle to take the throne. in 2005, the king dissolved parliament and took over all executive powers, ostensibly to better control the insurgency (the political parties' success was...mixed). in late 2005/early 2006, a people's democracy movement forced the king to restrict his power. subsequently, a parliament was reinstated, the comprehensive peace agreement being written, and everyone started getting ready for the 2008 elections... which, when they happened, were considered, y'know, more or less free and fair, and in which the CPNM won the largest number of seats, one of the big three that include the . fast forward another year, and the Maoists leave the government after being prevented from firing the army chief, UML candidate MK Nepal becomes PM. fast forward yet another year (spring 2010)...the constitution remains undrafted a month from its deadline. the CPNM stage an indefinite (turned out to be weeklong) strike (called bandh in nepali), shutting down the country to push for their demands to be met (resignation of PM, consensus government under CPNM, among other things). at the 12th (no, not even 11th, literally 12th) hour, the parties came together to extend that madate of the constituent assembly (CA, the constitution writing body) under the interim constitution for another year. however, agitation against MK Nepal continued. he resigned last month, and this week elections have been held to try to replace him.

ANYWAY...sorry this was such a half-baked post. i actually wrote all of the above as a prelude to my expression of astonishment (well maybe not "astonishment") and confusion at the state of things today. again, i'm not an expert, but i usually have SOME clue what's going on. today, i'm pretty much stumped. on the bright side, now you've got the basics...if you bear with me, i promise more coherent/in depth posts on nepali politics in the future!

in the meantime, for more about nepal since the CPA (2006), check out the carter center's reports. they've been monitoring the implementation of the peace accords and constitution writing.