Nepal’s quiet, barely known chief justice is on the verge of taking almost total control of the Himalayan nation, becoming the interim head of government as well as the top judge in a country that has been without a legislature for months.
It seems to be the only thing the country’s furiously feuding politicians can agree on, even though one of them calls the move “flawed in every way.”
Paralysed by political gridlock for months, Nepal’s four biggest political parties have turned to Khilraj Regmi to take over as prime minister and guide it through long-delayed elections. Regmi’s own court, acting without him, is expected to issue a decision about the plan Thursday.
Lawyers and some political parties have protested the move as an affront to the separation of powers, but Nepal is in a legal vacuum. There aren’t really any rules.
A Constituent Assembly, which acted as a Parliament even as it struggled to write a constitution to turn this former war-wracked monarchy into a peaceful republic, finally expired in May after extending deadlines to finish its work four times, in vain. With no permanent constitution, the country has only the expired interim constitution to guide it.
Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai, of the Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), has remained in power since then, despite opposition protests that his legal hold on the office had expired as well.