Sunday, June 11, 2006

Parliament strips Gyanendra of veto power

Nepal's King Gyanendra, revered by some as a divine incarnation, lost his power to veto legislation after parliamentary sessions late Saturday.

Parliament had earlier removed the king's authority over the military, forced him to pay taxes, and made him answerable to both parliament and the courts.

King Gyanendra
King Gyanendra. AFP file photo from Yahoo News.

The use of the world "royal" for state-owned enterprise has also been halted. Thus, for example, Royal Nepal Airlines is now known as Nepal Airlines. What was formerly known as "His Majesty's Government" is now known as the "Nepal Government."

It is expected that parliament will also soon take control of succession to the throne, if in fact Nepal is not declared a republic and the monarchy rejected altogether.

"Political parties are not clear whether they want to keep the king or not," said Lok Raj Baral, executive chairman of the private research group Nepal Centre for Contemporary Studies.



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