As the political parties failed to name a consensus candidate for the post of prime minister within the extended deadline of Wednesday, president Ram Baran Yadav has asked the parliament to vote for a new prime minister.
Despite several rounds of talks among all parties over the past few days, there was no agreement on a consensus candidate. The UCPN (Maoist) and NC have both been claiming for the government leadership. The Maoists had fielded Baburam Bhattarai while NC had fielded Sher Bahadur Deuba as a consensus candidate for the PM’s post.
Yadav wrote to parliament to start the election process as the political parties failed to agree on a consensus candidate. The political parties had started negotiations on 7 August after Prime Minister Jhalanath Khanal resigned to make way for a consensus government aimed at speeding up the peace and constitution drafting processes.
Since no party has majority in the parliament, it could be another long drawn process. There were 17 rounds of voting spread over seven months after Khanal’s predecessor resigned in June last year.