Nepal parliament votes to end monarchy

KATHMANDU, Dec 28 (Reuters) - Nepal's provisional parliament approved a motion to abolish the monarchy on Friday, as part of negotiations with former Maoist rebels to underpin a fragile peace deal.

The result comes after the rebels fought a decade-long insurgency demanding an end to the monarchy, and analysts say the result is a compromise because King Gyanendra will remain in the palace for now, albeit stripped of all powers.

Lawmakers voted for Nepal, once the world's only Hindu kingdom, to become a "federal democratic republican state".

The motion was passed by a majority of 270 votes in the 329-seat parliament, which includes the Maoists. Three votes were cast against it and the rest abstained or were absent.

Speaker Subas Nemwang read out the result after the vote.

But Nepal will become a republic only after the first meeting of a special assembly, which is due to be elected by mid-April next year, said Home Minister Krishna Prasad Sitaula.

The newly elected assembly will be obliged to endorse the motion and will not have the power to amend or reject it, he said.

The vote comes days after the government agreed to abolish the Himalayan nation's nearly 240-year-old monarchy, one of the few left in Asia.

That decision ended months of political deadlock with the once-feared Maoist guerrillas.

The popularity of the monarchy has dipped ever since King Gyanendra granted himself absolute power in 2005. He bowed to weeks of bloody protests last year and handed power back to political parties.

This prompted last year's landmark deal between the government and the Maoists, ending a conflict in which more than 13,000 people died since 1996.

"We have supported the motion because it meets one of our demands for a republic and to clear the way for the elections," said Dev Gurung, deputy leader of the Maoists in parliament.

"We will raise our other demands gradually."

The Maoists had been insisting on an immediate abolition of the monarchy.

But the government had rejected this. It argued such a demand went against an earlier agreement to let the elected assembly decide the fate of the king, who is traditionally considered an incarnation of Vishnu, a Hindu god.

Friday's vote was a compromise to preserve the peace deal.

Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala, 83, has taken over responsibility as head of state.

Officials said King Gyanendra will continue to live in the palace without any powers until after the April elections. He is then expected to move full-time into his private home in Kathmandu and become just another citizen of the new republic.

"But if the king creates serious hurdles in the elections he can be removed by a two-third majority of the interim parliament before the polls," the motion said.

Shrish Shumshere Rana, who was a member of the government King Gyanendra formed after he took absolute power in 2005, criticised the move.

"It is an unconstitutional drama being enacted with total impudence," he said. (Editing by Jonathan Allen and David Fogarty)