Uncertainty in Nepal,Poudyal fails PM race again

Prachanda’s candidacy,leaving Nepali Congress (NC) candidate Poudyal alone in the fray.

65-year-old Poudyal received 116 votes in his favour,184 votes short of a simple majority. Seventy-one lawmakers stayed neutral,while the remaining members did not participate in the voting process,the nepalnews online said.

Unified CPN (Maoist) and CPN-UML lawmakers did not participate in the voting process. Till the seventh round of elections,CPN-UML had participated in the voting process and stayed neutral,the report said.

The next round of voting will be on September 30.

Following his failure to get majority support in Parliament seven times in a row,the Maoist chief on September 17 withdrew from the prime ministerial election after a deal with the CPN-UML in bid to facilitate the formation of a national consensus government.

Nearly three months after the 22-party coalition led by Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal collapsed,eight rounds of poll have failed to elect a new leader. lawmakers in the 601-member Constituent Assembly.

55-year-old former prime minister Prachanda and CPN-UML president Jhala Nath Khanal reached a deal on

September 17 that the Maoists would withdraw from the Prime Ministerial race and both the parties would not take part in the election on September 26.

Khanal was the CPN-UML party candidate till he withdrew his candidature during the first round of voting on July 21 as he could not muster the two-thirds majority support in the House.

The major parties had failed to agree on a consensus candidate for the post of the Prime Minister,leading to the process of electing a new leader through majority vote in the Constituent Assembly.

Nepali Congress has ruled out the possibility of forming the next government under the Maoists’ leadership as the former rebels have not yet laid down arms,managed their combatants and dissolved the paramilitary organization of its youth wing,Young Communist League.

CPN-Maoist,which ended its decade-long civil war in 2006,is the single largest party with 238 seats in the Assembly,while Nepali Congress has 114 members in the House whose two-year term was extended by one year on May 28.

The CPN-UML with the strength of 109 and the Madhesi alliance with the combine strength of 82 and other smaller parties have called for a national government.

The country has been without a government since June 30,when Nepal stood down under intense pressure from the Maoists.

The Maoists,who waged a decade-long insurgency,joined mainstream politics after the 2006 peace deal with the interim government led by G. P. Koirala,won the largest number of parliamentary seats in the April 2008 elections.

The Maoists led by Prachanda formed a government,but it later collapsed after a dispute with President Ram Baran Yadav over their attempt to replace the then army chief Rukmangad Katwal.

A concerned India had sent Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s special envoy Shyam Saran last month to hold parleys with top leaders of Nepal in an effort to end the political crisis gripping the country.

During his meeting with Nepal’s top leaders,including Prachanda,Nepali Congress President Shushil Koirala and Khanal,Saran made it clear that India had no favourites and it was for political parties in the country to choose a new leaders.