Nepal to elect new PM tomorrow
8 Feb watchinga.com
More than two-and-half months after polling for a new Constituent
Assembly, Nepal’s legislative-parliament will Monday endeavour to elect
a new prime minister following failure of several bids to install a
consensus government.
Earlier, a seven-day deadline given by President Ram Baran Yadav to
install a consensus-based government with the support of all 30
political parties represented in the legislative-parliament expired on
Sunday.After several bids to elect a consensus-based prime minister
according to the constitutional provision failed, President Yadav Monday
instructed Nepal’s parliament to elect the new prime minister through a
majority vote.
According to the constitutional mandate, the formation of the
consensus-based government would be given first priority. If all
attempts fail to install such a government, the only option remaining
will be for a majority-based government through voting in parliament.The
prime minister hopeful under the consensus-based system should not go
for voting in parliament while the prime ministerial candidate
contesting under the majority-based system should be voted in the house
under a unique constitutional provision being practised here since 2008.
A meeting of parliament’s business dvisory committee Tuesday decided
to hold the election for the post next Monday at 11 a.m., said
parliament spokesperson Mukunda Sharma. As of now, Sushil Koirala,
president of the Nepali Congress (NC), the largest party in Nepal’s
parliament and leader of the party’s parliamentary group, is the sole
candidate laying claim to the post.The NC has 194 members among the 575
elected seats and needs strong support from the second largest party,
Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist Leninist (CPN-UML) to win its
bid in the 601-seat house.
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