Nepal, 2002 — auto-coup
Event Summary
On 4 October 2002 King Gyanendra of Nepal dismissed the elected Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba and assumed executive authority himself, the monarch's first direct seizure of power since the democratic constitution of 1990. The move came against a backdrop of the Maoist insurgency and a political impasse: Deuba had recommended the dissolution of parliament in May 2002 when parties would not extend the state of emergency, and the king then used the absence of a legislature to sack the prime minister, citing his failure to hold elections, which Gyanendra postponed indefinitely. The king appointed Lokendra Bahadur Chand as prime minister and, over the following years, chose and dismissed a succession of prime ministers while keeping executive power in his own hands, provoking widespread censure and street protests demanding the restoration of elected government.
The 2002 takeover was the prelude to the far more sweeping royal coup of February 2005, when Gyanendra declared a state of emergency and assumed full direct rule. Deuba was not physically harmed in the 2002 dismissal.
Researched Details
Researched
Independent research, added record by record. Hover any label for what it means.
Sources
Editorial Note
Cross-Reference
Only one dataset carries it. One of the three reference datasets we check against carries this event; the others do not list it. That is not a contradiction — the datasets cover different periods and use different thresholds — but it means the record has had less outside corroboration.
Identifiers for finding this same event in the other datasets:
- Cline Center id
79010042002
How the match is made is described in crossref-report.md.
Outcome and Target
Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, dismissed by the king; not physically harmed.
Baseline coding: Incumbent executive removed from power. Recorded leader fate: deposed; not physically harmed. The baseline file does not name individual targets; researched names are kept in a separate layer.
Baseline Dataset Citation
Baseline Source-Document Entries
CSP
Wikipedia
New York Times
BBC Monitoring International Reports
This is the citation trail carried by the baseline dataset, grouped by outlet and rejoined from the line-wrapped original. Coup Atlas has not independently re-checked every document; read the original before citing a specific claim. URLs the import damaged beyond safe repair are shown as plain text and listed in citations-report.md. How this list is built →