Nepal fails to elect new PM even in 7th run-off

Nepal's Legislature-Parliament has once more failed to elect a new prime minister in its 7th run- off held on Tuesday afternoon.

The two candidates -- the largest party Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) (UCPN-M) Chairman Prachanda and the second largest party Nepali Congress (NC) Vice-Chairman Ramchandra Paudel -- failed to get majority votes.

According to Interim Constitution of Nepal 2007, a candidate must garner at least 301 votes out of the 601 lawmakers in the parliament to win the election. "Candidacy proposal of the UCPN-M, Chairman has been rejected by majority votes as he got only 240 votes in his favor and 101 votes against him. Similarly, 163 lawmakers remained abstain," House Speaker Subash Nemwang announced.

Similarly, another candidate NC Vice-Chairman Paudel got only 122 votes in his favor.

The Legislature-Parliament of Nepal has been striving to fill the void after current caretaker prime minister Madhav Kumar Nepal resigned from his post on June 30. Nepali lawmakers have been voting to elect 34th prime minister of Nepal since July 21. House Speaker has not announced date for next run-off.

As consensus lacked amid political parties with persisting differences, both candidates could not garner simple majority votes from capacity of 601 seats Parliament and House Speaker Subash Nemwang announced the rejection of both candidacy proposals from UCPN-M Chairman Prachanda and NC Vice-Chairman Paudel.

After the third largest party, the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist) (CPN-UML) that holds 109 seats, Madheshi People's Rights Forum (MPRF) with the capacity of 25 seats and United Democratic Madhesi Front (UDMF), an alliance of three Madhes-based parties which commands 57 seats in Parliament, decided to remain abstain from voting, candidates are failing to muster majority votes.

According to the existing regulations of the Nepal's House require that voting be carried out ad infinitum unless one of the two candidates gets a clear simple majority or chooses to back out.

Source: Xinhua