In 2007 a transitional constitution came into force, with a transitional parliament taking over legislative power. The function of the head of state was transferred to the head of government Koirala. The king was finally deprived of power. A United Nations Political Mission in Nepal, abbreviation UNMIN was set up to control the disarming of the Maoists.
On April 10, 2008, elections to a constituent assembly took place, in which the CPN-M won 220 of the 601 seats. At its first meeting on May 28, 2008, the assembly confirmed the abolition of the monarchy decided by the transitional parliament. The NC politician Ram Baran Yadav (* 1948) was elected the first president of the new republic. The constituent assembly elected the former Maoist rebel leader and chairman of the CPN-M Pushpa Kamal Dahal “Prachanda” (* 1954) as the new head of government.
Recent developments
According to allunitconverters, the domestic peace process got into a serious crisis due to the unsolved problem of integrating the Maoist rebels into the Nepalese army. After the failed attempt to dismiss the army chief, Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal “Prachanda”resigned in 2009. His successor was Madhav Kumar Nepal (* 1953) a politician of the CPN-UML. It did not succeed in stabilizing the domestic political situation. In July 2010, Madhav Kumar Nepal announced his resignation as head of government. After several unsuccessful attempts, the constituent assembly voted with Jhala Nath Khanal(* 1950) in February 2011 again a politician of the CPN-UML to the office of Prime Minister. He too failed to end the domestic political crisis. So he could not reach an agreement in the constituent assembly on the drafting of a new constitution. The envisaged integration of the Maoist military units into the security forces continued to make no progress. Therefore, on August 14, 2011, Jhala Nath Khanal announced his resignation. His successor was Baburami Bhattarai (* 1954) from UCPN – M. On May 28, 2012 the mandate of the constituent assembly expired. Baburami Bhattarai initially remained in office as managing director. However, his plan to have a new constituent elected in November 2012 failed. Finally, the most important political groups agreed to entrust Khil Raj Regmi (* 1949), the country’s chief judge, with the leadership of an interim government preparing for the election. He was sworn in on March 14, 2013 as head of government. On November 19, 2013, the elections for the second constituent assembly took place, in which NC and CPN-UML won the most seats (196 and 175 seats respectively). In February 2014, the constituent assembly elected Sushil Koirala (* 1939, † 2016), the chairman of the Nepali Congress, as the new head of government.
On April 25, 2015, an earthquake west of Kathmandu with a magnitude of 7.8 wreaked havoc and claimed thousands of lives.
On September 16, 2015, the constituent assembly passed the new constitution with 508 votes in favor, which came into force on September 20, 2015. In the run-up to the decision, there had been serious unrest in the south of the country with numerous fatalities because the ethnic minorities of the Tharu and Madhesi living there were v. a. saw their rights disadvantaged by the demarcation of the newly created provinces. On the basis of the new constitution, on October 11, 2015, parliament elected Khadga Prasad Sharma Oli (* 1952), the chairman of the CPN-UML, as the new prime minister. He was able to prevail in the election with 338 votes against the previous incumbent Koirala, who received 249 votes. With Bidya Devi Bhandari, the previous deputy chairman of the CPN-UML, the parliament elected a woman for the first time on October 28, 2015. Khadga Prasad Sharma Oli formed a government that could mainly rely on the CPN-UML and the UCPN-M. The main problems for the new cabinet were coping with the aftermath of the severe earthquake and the ongoing tensions in the south of the country, where border crossings with India were temporarily blocked, leading to supply problems across the country. In July 2016, the governing coalition broke up when the CPN-MC, which emerged from the UCPN-M, withdrew its ministers from the cabinet and, together with the opposition Nepali Congress, passed a motion of no confidence against Khadga Prasad Sharma Olibrought into parliament. The latter then announced his resignation as head of government on July 24, 2016. On August 3, 2016, Parliament elected Pushpa Kamal Dahal »Prachanda«, the chairman of the CPN-MC, as his successor. This formed a cabinet mainly made up of ministers from the CPN-MC and the NC. According to a coalition agreement, Pushpa Kamal Dahal “Prachanda” resigned as head of government in May 2017. He was succeeded in June 2017 by NC chairman Sher Bahadur Deuba, who took over the office of prime minister for the fourth time. In the parliamentary elections on November 26th and December 7th, 2017, the allied left-wing parties CPN-UML and CPN-MC achieved a majority in the parliament with 121 and 53 seats respectively. On February 15, 2018 it was again Khadga Prasad Sharma Oli head of government. The electoral college established with the new constitution confirmed Bidya Devi Bhandari in the presidency on March 13, 2018.
