[JURIST] Leadership within the Communist Party of Nepal - Maoists (CPN-M) [party website] has called on Nepal's interim parliament to immediately declare the country a federal democratic republic. CPN-M leadership formed a human protest chain through the parliament building on Sunday which police say was long enough to disrupt traffic throughout the capital city of Kathmandu. Senior members of the Maoist party claim that they have secured over one million signatures on a petition calling for the creation of a republic government. The CPN-M has been agitating for the declaration of a republic [BBC report] for several weeks, but senior leaders in the six other major parties involved in the interim parliament, operating under the powers of the interim constitution [JURIST report], assert that the parliament only has the power to set up elections for a Constituent Assembly [eKantipur report], which will then decide the form of Nepal's new government.

Dissatisfaction with King Gyanendra [official profile; BBC profile] has led many individuals to call for the simple abolition of the monarchy with the declaration of a republic. eKantipur.com has more.