KATHMANDU, July 13: Finally, the political parties have decided to pick a new prime minister through voting in the 601-member parliament. The voting has been scheduled for July 21, Speaker Subas Nembang announced at a parliamentary meeting on Tuesday.
Earlier in the afternoon, a meeting of the Business Advisory Committee (BAC) of parliament had suggested to the Speaker to hold the vote on that date as the major parties had failed in their efforts to form a government by consensus.
Speaker Nembang began the election process for picking the prime minister after the extended deadline set by President Dr Ram Baran Yadav for the parties to form a consensus government expired on Monday.
The president on Monday called upon the parties to form a majority government after the big three political parties -- UCPN (Maoist), Nepali Congress and CPN-UML -- failed to form a consensus government.
The parliament secretariat later issued a notice giving details about the prime minister´s election process.
As per the schedule, anyone from among the 601-member parliament can file their candidacy from 10 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on July 20. The secretariat will publish the list of candidates at parliament by 5:30 p.m. the same day. Finally, the voting will start at 11:00 a.m. the next day (July 21).
Leaders regularly involved in inter-party parleys for ending the political deadlock, however, claim that the latest political development is unpredictable. "The picture is very unclear. No leader from any political party nor any alliance can be said to have strong chances," UML leader Pradip Gyawali said.
Though none of the major political parties are confident at present of garnering a simple majority in parliament, it is certain that they will field candidates in the election because not doing so will be risky. "If just a single parliamentarian files his/her nomination, that person will be elected unanimously," said the notice.
Some leaders also see the possibility of all of the candidates failing to secure a majority vote.
However, Speaker Nembang said he is confident the process will conclude on the same day. "I haven´t thought beyond that as I am in no doubt that at least one of the candidates will secure a majority and the process will not need to be further prolonged," he said.
If no candidate secures majority
In case of failure by all the candidates to secure a majority vote, the Speaker will announce a date for another round of voting as per the regulations of parliament.
Officials at the parliament secretariat believe that in such a situation the Speaker will obviously hold consultations with top political leaders before going for a meeting of the BAC to finally fix a new date for voting.
New candidates will not be allowed to file candidacy in the second round voting. As per the regulations, only candidates who file their candidacy on May 20 will be eligible for the prime ministerial race.
"If three candidates, for instance, file their candidacy on May 20, only those three candidates will remain in the contest no matter how many rounds of voting it takes to finalize matters," said the official.
Source: http://www.myrepublica.com/portal/index.php?action=news_details&news_id=20986
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