'Nepali king ill-placed for a comeback'

The two sides finalised a draft interim constitution in talks concluded early Saturday that will see King Gyanendra's powers as head of state transferred to Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala.

Koirala, the respected octogenarian architect of Nepal's peace deal, will hold those powers until mid-2007.

The decision represents a major victory for the fiercely republican Maoists, who were determined to strip Gyanendra of his title after agreeing to end 10 years of civil war and enter the political mainstream.

"This is a landmark achievement," Maoist spokesman Krishna Bahadur Mahara told AFP.

The implementation of the interim constitution depends on other parts of the peace deal between the Maoist and the government moving forward in the coming weeks.

The final decision on the king's role will only come after elections in June for a body that will permanently rewrite the impoverished Himalayan nation's constitution.

"With the decision to transfer the role of the head of the state to the prime minister, the monarchy has now become obsolete," said Kapil Shrestha, a political science professor at the Tribhuvan University.

"There is no room for the king to bounce back, it would be disastrous for him if he tries to get involved again in state affairs," he said.

"All his experiments have failed. He has no other option at this time than to remain silent and wait for the constituent assembly decision," Shrestha said.

Nepal's kings have for centuries been revered as incarnations of the Hindu Lord Vishnu, the god of protection.

But republican sentiment has climbed sharply since Gyanendra, 59, sacked the government and seized direct power in February 2005 in what he said was a bid to crush the Maoist rebellion that has claimed over 12,500 lives.

Once foes, the Maoist rebels and political parties formed a loose alliance late in 2005, and in April organised huge "people power" protests that forced Gyanendra to surrender direct rule.

Under the peace deal agreed to last month, the government has agreed to let the Maoists have 73 seats in a new 330-seat parliament in return for placing their arms and armies in camps under United Nations supervision.

"The king has been totally sidelined," said Gunaraj Luitel, the news editor for the Kantipur daily paper.

"There is only a very slim chance for him to make a comeback and retain his old position. All the political decisions that have been taken by the parties and the Maoists are based on people's power."

"He has become a king only in title," said Madhav Kumar Nepal, the general secretary of the Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist Leninist (CPN-UML), the second largest party in the present government.

"There is no space to get involved in politics like he did before. His future is uncertain, as it's now up to the people to decide whether Nepal needs a monarchy or not in the long term."