Panchayat System in Nepal Part-I
The partyless Panchayat system was established in Nepal by King Mahendra in 1960 and it remained in force till 1990s. This was a pyramidal structure, beginning with some 4000 village assemblies and ending into the Rastriya Panchayat (National Parliament). Though people could elect their representatives, the Panchayat system was based on the absolute power of the monarchy with King as sole authority over all governmental institutions, including the Cabinet and the Parliament. The political parties were declared illegal.
The National Panchayat was made of 90 members. It had no power to criticise the royal monarchy; no power to introduce budget without royal approval and no power to debate the principles of partyless democracy. The King was supreme commander of the armed forces, had power to appoint and remove the supreme court judges, appoint the members of public service commission and amend the constitution at will. The elections were held first time in 1963 for National Panchayat but all political parties were banned. In around a decade, King Mahendra virtually had regained all the sovereign powers enjoyed by his ancestors in 18th century.
In 1972, King Mahendra was succeeded by his son King Birendra, who continued the authoritarian rule. The public dissent, student demonstration, anti-regime activities kept on growing along with rampant arrests of activists by the royal government.
Amid protests, the King Birendra called for a national referendum in 1980 on the question of -what should be the system of government: whether to continue the Panchayat system with democratic reforms or establishment of a multiparty system. In this referendum, the Panchayat system got a narrow victory. Few democratic reforms were carried out swiftly by the King such as:
- Election of the prime minister by Rastriya Panchayat
- Council of Minister would be responsible to Rastriya Panchayat not the King
- Freedom of speech and political activities
- Eleven-member Constitution Reforms Commission
The above changes were done via amendment of the 1962 Constitution. Elections were held in 1981 under the new constitution. The political parties boycotted these elections but people participated paving the way for Surya Bahadur Thapa to become elected Prime Minister. However, the Panchayat system soon became a stage for factional fights and ever-changing coalitions in the Nepal politics. In mid 1980s, the government of Surya Bahadur Thapa fell because of charges of corruption and food crisis. His place was taken by Lokendra Bahadur Chand. Elections were once again held in 1986 when Marich Man Singh Shrestha was elected as prime minister.
