Nepal Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba is planning to introduce a controversial ordinance, which seeks the release of political prisoners like Nagarik Unmukti Party (NUP) advisor Resham Chaudhary, in a desperate bid to cling onto power.
Deuba’s Nepali Congress-led five-party coalition, which is two seats away from a simple majority after securing 136 seats in the 275-member House of Representatives (HoR), decided to introduce this controversial ordinance to release Chaudhary and secure NUP’s support, which has won three seats in the general election held on November 20.
Chaudhary is serving a life sentence for the past five years for masterminding the 2015 Tikapur massacre, in which nine people were killed.
A Cabinet meeting held on Sunday decided to include Sub-Clause 9 in the Clause 116 of the Civil Criminal Procedures Code 2074 BS in order to pave the way for the release of Chaudhary. Following the Cabinet’s endorsement, the ordinance now awaits Nepal President Bidya Bhandari’s approval. Meanwhile, 13 former police chiefs have issued a joint statement, urging the Nepal government to withdraw the ordinance to free Chaudhary and other political prisoners.
Nepali Congress (NC) has emerged as the single largest party with 89 seats after the election commission allocated seats to all the political parties under the proportional voting system on Wednesday. The other partners of the ruling alliance have together secured 47 seats – CPN-Maoist Centre (32), CPN-Unified Socialist (10), Loktantrik Samajwadi Party (4) and Rashtriya Janamorcha one. The C. K. Raut-led Janamat Party, which secured only one seat in the House of Representatives (HoR) under the first-past-the-post category, got 5 seats under the proportional representation (PR) category, which means that the party will have a total of six members in the House.
Last week, Prime Minister Deuba met Raut at the PM’s residence and discussed matters relating to forging cooperation in the days ahead, sources said. In the 275-member House of Representatives, 165 were elected through direct voting, while the remaining 110 were elected through the proportional electoral system. Elections to the HoR and seven provincial assemblies to end the prolonged political instability that has plagued the Himalayan nation.
