The movement of Nepal's political evolution has recently been similar to that of a pendulum, swinging between breathtaking advances that are nothing less than historic, and political stalemate between bickering parties. Over the course of the past month, the elected Constituent Assembly declared Nepal a Federal Democratic Republic, putting an end to the monarchy and, with it, the 240-year-old Shah dynasty. Belying all kinds of fears to the contrary, Gyanendra Shah, the deposed king, left the Narayanhiti Palace peaceably with a farewell press conference. The former royal palace has since been officially converted into the Narayanhiti Palace Museum, though it has yet to actually open its doors in this new iteration.
And yet, the people could not get a sense of real movement because, fully two months after the results of the 10 April elections were announced, the Constituent Assembly was unable to meet for any substantive sitting to focus on the real issue at hand: the task of writing the new constitution. The numerous decisions left pending in order to get to the April elections in the first place emerged as political stumbling blocks between the various political parties and the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist). These have included the 'management' of the 19,000-odd Maoist combatants; who exactly will be included as members of the National Security Council, and so on.
The largest hurdle, however, has turned out to be the selection of the first president of the republic. The Maoists, in full momentum after their dramatic electoral showing, have been extremely keen to control the process, and to dictate the name of the constitutional president, even while staking claim to the executive prime ministership. But the other political parties, in particular Girija Prasad Koirala's Nepali Congress, have been unwilling to accede. They have pointed out that, in the context of a hung assembly – in which the Maoists have no more than 37 percent of the members (and 29 percent of the popular vote), and have been unable to cobble together a larger flank – the ex-rebels could hardly be allowed to prescribe the entire process. Most importantly, no party disputed the Maoist claim to the executive prime ministership; the others have, however, regularly reminded the Maoists of the dictates of the interim constitution, such that all decisions need to be taken through consensus.
Watching this process from the outside, the recent discourse has not been entirely correct when it has castigated the political parties for what were seen as opportunistic battles for prize and prestige. While doubtless, Koirala would want to be the first president of the republic, what the public was witnessing was a dedicated attempt to balance power. While the Maoists sought to project the presidency as a ceremonial post that they would magnanimously hand over to a republican leader from the southern plains, or to an ethnic Newar woman politician of the left, the other parties were quite aware that the president had to be someone of stature, who could act as a counterbalance to the enormous power that the Maoists now hold.