Nepalese parliament plans seventh bid to elect premier (Roundup)

Sep 5, 2010, 16:23 GMT

Kathmandu - Nepal has scheduled a seventh attempt to elect a prime minister, after parliamentarians failed once again to do so on Sunday.

The Business Advisory Committee of the Constituent Assembly called for a seventh round of the run-off poll to be held next Tuesday.

The failure to elect a new premier since mid-July has thrown the Himalayan nation deeper into political turmoil. Nepal has been under a caretaker government since June 30, when Prime Minister Madhav Kumar resigned under Maoist pressure.

The voting delay has left the country still awaiting a full budget, which has also started taking a toll on the administration.

On Sunday, Maoist candidate Pushpa Kamal Dahal garnered 240 votes, while Nepali Congress candidate Ram Chandra Poudel won 122.

A candidate needs 300 votes from the 601-member parliament to win.

'The parliament must decide soon,' Poudel said. 'We can't call it attempts to find consensus if the parliament remains neutral.'

The election failed to produce results after the third and fourth largest groups in parliament, the Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist Leninists (CPN-UML) and the Madhesi Front, abstained.

'The two candidates should withdraw their candidacy and we should go for national consensus,' CPN-UML Chairman Jhalnath Khanal said as he walked out of parliament. 'We can amend the regulations to find a different resolution.'

The Maoists had become the strongest political party in Nepal's parliament after April 2008 elections, but were ousted in 2009 after a power struggle with the president. They have been attempting to return to power ever since.

'We will hold talks within our party and talk to the other parties, including the civil society, about finding an outlet,' Maoist Vice-Chairman Narayan Kaji Shrestha said on Sunday.

The Maoists had led a decade-long insurgency from 1996 to 2006 in rural Nepal, which saw more than 14,000 people killed by the rebels and the government forces.