Kathmandu, Aug 23 (IANS) Nepal’s Maoist chief Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda entered the ring – where the fifth round of battle for the new prime minister’s post is being held Monday – with the hope that he will be supported by the ethnic parties from the Terai plains and win.
The 55-year-old former revolutionary, who failed to triumph in the four earlier rounds though his Maoist party is the largest in parliament, told the media he has been able to garner the support of the fourth largest group, a bloc of four ethnic or Madhesi parties from the Terai plains.
However, the man who led a guerrilla war against the state successfully for 10 years was ambiguous about the Madhesi support, saying he would win unless the bloc decided at the last moment to stay neutral.
Prachanda, whose party has 236 MPs, needs only 64 more votes to become the new prime minister, a post lying vacant since Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal resigned in June due to Maoist pressure.
But though winning an election in 2008, Prachanda now finds it impossible to win the vote in parliament with the Madhesi bloc, which has 82 MPs, abstaining from voting as well as the third largest party, the communists, whose 109 lawmakers could have made a difference.
The communists, miffed at their candidate being out of the reckoning due to intra-party rivalry, have not taken part in any of the earlier rounds. They have threatened to do the same again Monday if the contestants refuse to heed their demands.
The demands, mostly targeted at the Maoists, have asked the former rebels to empty their cantonments harbouring nearly 20,000 fighters, dismantle their paramilitary units and return the public property captured during the ‘People’s War’.
With the communists refusing to cooperate, the fifth round of vote will also be reduced to a fiasco if the Madhesi bloc abstains as well.
Should that happen, the other parties in parliament have threatened they would begin a protest movement and boycott parliament.
The protracted impasse caused President Ram Baran Yadav to express concern and ask the parties to create a consensus.
As the plea falls on deaf ears, Nepal’s caretaker government is constrained by the lack of funds as it could not pass the budget.
A new crisis looms close next month when the tenure of the UN agency helping in the peace process comes to an end.
The UN Mission in Nepal (UNMIN), which has been monitoring the arms and fighters of the Maoists’ People’s Liberation Army, faces an uncertain future with the ruling parties and the army saying its tenure should not be extended.
Only the Maoists are pressing for it to stay on, threatening that the peace process will break down if it leaves Nepal.
The long crisis also raises fresh doubts about Nepal’s ability to implement a new constitution next year.
It failed to do so this May and plunged the nation into an unprecedented crisis.
(Sudeshna Sarkar can be contacted at sudeshna.s@ians.in)
