AP

Kathmandu, May 29: Nepal's lawmakers abolished the monarchy and declared the country a republic on Wednesday, ending 239 years of royal rule in the Himalayan nation and the world’s last Hindu kingdom.

The newly elected assembly, led by former communist rebels, adopted the resolution at its first meeting by an overwhelming majority and gave the king 15 days to leave his palace in central Kathmandu.

There was no reaction from the palace on the resolution. The palace has rarely commented on political developments in Nepal since King Gyanendra was forced to end his royal dictatorship two years ago.

Across Kathmandu, young men marched with red flags as Nepalese young and old celebrated what many see as the culmination of a two-year peace process with the rebels that began after weeks of unrest forced Gyanendra to restore democracy.

Near the convention center where the Constituent Assembly was meeting, thousands chanted “Long Live the Republic!” and denounced Gyanendra.

While the celebrations were largely joyous and peaceful, police at one point used tear gas to disperse a crowd that gathered too close to the building. The country’s leading politicians have in recent days threatened to forcibly remove the king from his palace if he refuses to go peacefully.

But in an apparent bid to defuse a potential standoff, the assembly would give the king 15 days to vacate the palace after the republic was declared, said Bimalendra Nidhi of the centrist Nepali Congress, the second largest party in the assembly. Nidhi made the comments after his party met with the Maoists who hold the most seats in the assembly and are expected to lead the country’s new government.

The Maoists gave up their 10-year fight for a communist Nepal not long after Gyanendra’s autocratic rule came to an end, and the election of the assembly in April marked the culmination of the peace process with the Maoists.

The assembly is charged with governing Nepal while it rewrites the constitution. On Tuesday, 575 of its members were sworn in. Another 26 members are still to be appointed, and last-minute talks among the parties on filling those seats and how much power the newly created presidency would have - and who should fill the job - forced the assembly to postpone its first meeting until Wednesday evening.

The political parties had long made it clear that their first act would be to declare Nepal a republic and do away with the 239-year-old Shah dynasty. But getting rid of the monarchy is in many ways the least of the new government’s problems, as evidenced by a string of small bombings that hit Kathmandu this week, including two on Wednesday.

The Maoists have promised to bring sweeping change to Nepal, which in many places more closely resembles medieval Europe than a modern nation. If Gyanendra peacefully leaves the palace, he is expected to move to the palatial private Kathmandu home where he lived before assuming the throne in 2001.

He ascended to the throne following a massacre at the palace in which a gunman, allegedly the crown prince, gunned down King Birendra and much of the royal family before killing himself.