Parliament went through the motions for the 15th time Monday in attempting to elect a prime minister.
The sole prime ministerial candidate, Ram Chandra Poudel, secured 96 of the 129 votes cast in today’s election. Two voted against him while 31 lawmakers stayed neutral.
The elections will not yield any result unless the UCPN (Maoist), UML and Madhesi alliance take part in the voting. They have been boycotting the prime ministerial election, insisting on a consensus candidate. However, Poudel says he will only withdraw if there is a clear roadmap on the peace process and constitution writing first.
NC argues the withdrawal of Poudel’s candidacy would leave the country in a void. The first meeting of the party’s newly elected Central Working Committee has decided not to quit the PM race until the Maoists and the UML agree on a package agreement on power-sharing, the peace process and constitution writing.
It has been four months since the country has not had a fully functional government. The country’s economy is in dire straits as the caretaker government led by Madhav Nepal has not been able to present the budget due to the objections of the Maoists, who have threatened to take to the streets if the budget is tabled. Meanwhile, the constitution-writing process is in limbo. The Maoists have not attended meetings of the Constitutional Council, and the PLA integration process has not progressed.
However, the high-level taskforce formed to sort out contentious issues in the constitution writing process has forged a consensus on an independent judiciary in principle. However, it has yet to finalise the composition and jurisdiction of the independent judiciary body.
Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal has called a meeting of the top leaders of the political parties on Tuesday to discuss the appointment of the officials in constitutional bodies and the budget.
The 16th round of prime ministerial elections has been scheduled for 4 October.