Kathmandu: Nepal's Maoists said today the abolition of the Himalayan nation's monarchy was now just a "matter of procedure" as the former rebels maintained a strong lead in the count from last week's elections.

"The monarchy is finished. There should be no doubt about that, it's just a matter of procedure," senior Maoist official Prababkher, who uses one name, said.

With the Maoists on track to emerge as the biggest single bloc in a new assembly that will rewrite Nepal's constitution, Prababkher predicted that the 601-member body would waste little time in declaring a republic when it convenes.

"We may not declare a republic on the first day of the first constituent assembly meeting, said the Maoist official, a senior party member with a set in the new body. "Declaring a republic may take a few days but there is no doubt it will happen," he added.

The April 10 elections were a central plank of a 2006 peace deal under which the Maoists agreed to end their decade-long insurgency, which left a least 13,000 people dead, and enter mainstream politics.

Although other mainstream parties had agreed with the Maoists to sack the unpopular King Gyanendra, some politicians have been arguing that Nepal should keep some kind of monarch as a symbol of the neutrality of the country sandwiched between Asian giants China and India.

But these mainstream parties are lagging behind the ultra-republican Maoists in the vote count.

King Gyanendra ascended the throne after a palace massacre in 2001, in which the former king and much of the rest of Nepal's core royals were gunned down at a family get-together by a drunken and suicidal prince who was furious at not being allowed to marry the woman he loved.
Source : PTI