Politics

Anti-government protests continue in Nepal

Kathmandu, Feb 10 (efe-epa).- Thousands of people took the streets in the Nepalese capital on Wednesday in a protest rally by a former guerrilla commander against the prime minister’s decision to call snap polls after dissolving parliament.

The march by Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda and former communist prime minister Madhav Kumar Nepal came days after Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli held a pro-government rally in Kathmandu last week.

“Did you see Mr. Oli how to organize a rally,” Prachanda told a mass of supporters.

He warned of a picket outside the Singha Durbar — the country’s administrative hub and the prime minister’s official residence – by bringing millions of people if Oli did not rescind his decision.

There has been a series of protests and counter-protests across the country by the two breakaway factions of the Nepal Communist Party after Oli dissolved parliament prematurely on Dec.20 and called snap polls.

Thousands of supporters of the Oli faction attended a gathering near the former royal palace on Feb.5. He has announced two rallies on Feb.13 and 20 in an ongoing political unrest in the Himalayan country.

Prachanda said Oli was a murderer of the constitution promulgated with a lot of trials and tribulations.

“Oli has committed a huge crime by killing the constitution and people have now understood it very well,” he said.

Prachanda urged Oli to step down immediately.

Ram Kumari Jhankri, a leftist leader, in her address to the gathering, said President Bidya Devi Bhandari was a pawn to the prime minister to support his alleged ill motives.

The two allies formed a ruling combine in February 2018 after winning a majority in the general elections.

They merged in May that year to give their government the most popular support in Nepal in the last two decades.

But frictions between the two sides appeared last year when Prachanda demanded that power be shared alternatively between them.

Following the refusal by Oli, accused of promoting corruption, the party began making preparations to dismiss him.

The prime minister preempted their move and dissolved the parliament. EFE-EPA

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