Panchayat System

Panchayat (Nepali: पञ्चायत) was the political system of Nepal from 1960 to 1990. It was based on the Panchayat system of self-governance historically prevalent in South Asia.

In 1960, King Mahendra used his emergency powers and took charge of the State once again claiming that the Congress government had fostered corruption, promoted party above national interest, failed to maintain law and order and "encouraged anti-national elements". Political parties were outlawed and all prominent political figures, including the Prime Minister, were put behind bars. Civil liberties were curtailed and press freedom muzzled. King Mahendra, then, through an "exercise of the sovereign power and prerogatives inherent in us" promulgated a new constitution in December 1962 introducing a party-less Panchayat system. The political system (Panchayat System) was a party-less "guided" democracy in which the people could elect their representatives, while real power remained in the hands of the monarch. Dissenters were called anti-national elements.

The Panchayat System was formulated by King Mahendra after overthrowing the first democratically elected government and dissolving the parliament in 1960. On December 26, 1961, King Mahendra appointed a council of five ministers to help run the administration. Several weeks later, political parties were declared illegal. At first, the Nepali Congress leadership propounded a non-violent struggle against the new order and formed alliances with several political parties, including the Gorkha Parishad and the United Democratic Party. Early in 1961, however, the king set up a committee of four officials from the Central Secretariat to recommend changes in the constitution that would abolish political parties and substitute a "National Guidance" system based on local panchayat led directly by the king.

Adopted on the second anniversary of the dissolution of the government, the new constitution of December 16, 1962, created a four-tier panchayat system. At the local level, there were 4,000 village assemblies (gaun sabha) electing nine members of the village panchayat, who in turn elected a mayor (sabhapati). Each village panchayat sent a member to sit on one of 75 districts (zilla) panchayat, representing from 40 to 70 villages; one-third of the members of these assemblies were chosen by the town panchayat. Members of the district panchayat elected representatives to fourteen zone assemblies (anchal sabha), functioning as electoral colleges for the National Panchayat, or Rastriya Panchayat, in Kathmandu. In addition, there were class organizations at village, district, and zonal levels for peasants, youth, women, elders, laborers, and ex-soldiers, who elected their own representatives to assemblies. The National Panchayat of about 90 members could not criticize the royal government, debate the principles of party-less democracy, introduce budgetary bills without royal approval, or enact bills without approval of the king. Mahendra was supreme commander of the armed forces, appointed (and had the power to remove) members of the Supreme Court, appointed the Public Service Commission to oversee the civil service, and could change any judicial decision or amend the constitution at any time. Within a span of ten years, the king had, in effect, reclaimed the sovereign power exercised by Prithvi Narayan Shah in the eighteenth century.

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