Parliament fails to elect prime minister, yet again

REPUBLICA

KATHMANDU, Aug 23: The parliament failed to elect a new prime minister even after holding the fifth round of voting on Monday as none of the two candidates -- Pushpa Kamal Dahal of UCPN (Maoist) and Ram Chandra Paudel of Nepali Congress (NC) -- failed to secure the required majority votes.

Dahal garnered 246 votes while 124 lawmakers voted for Paudel. The candidates needed at least 300 votes from the 599 active members in the 601-seat parliament to get elected.

During the voting for Dahal, 563 lawmakers cast their votes. Of them, 111 voted against him and 206 remained neutral. In Paudel´s turn, 567 votes were cast. Of them 243 voted against him and 200 remained neutral. Maoists have 237 members and NC 114 in the parliament.

Both the candidates failed to prove majority in their favor as the third-largest party CPN-UML that commands 109 seats and the United Democratic Madhesi Front (UDMF), an alliance of Madhes-based political parties that commands 82 seats, have remained neutral.

After the voting, the parties decided to hold sixth round of voting on September 5 and seek consensus on government formation till then.

Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal said that the UML would cooperate with the party that becomes ready to move ahead as per the UML´s proposal. UML Chairman Jhalanath Khanal reiterated his stance for consensus government.

NC candidate Paudel said the NC would emphasize on implementation of the past agreements on peace process. "We decided to spare more time before the next round so that we can put sufficient efforts toward forging consensus," he said. He said the NC is ready to discuss on the UML´s proposal of giving priority to consensus.

Earlier, an office bearers´ meeting of the NC decided to remain open to all alternatives to resolve the impasse if the Maoists agree to reach a ´package deal´ on issues related to constitution drafting and peace process.

NC Spokesperson Arjun Narsingh KC said there must also be an agreement on leadership and modality of the new government before withdrawing candidacies for the prime minister as demanded by UML and the Maoists. "NC is not ready to withdraw the candidacy in a void," KC added.