Kathmandu, Aug 17 (IANS) Fearing a failure yet again to elect a new prime minister and growing public anger and ridicule, Nepal’s major parties have agreed to postpone Wednesday’s election to Sunday in the hope they will be able to cobble a last-minute alliance.
It will be nearly two months since Nepal’s Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal resigned under Maoist pressure June 30.
Since then, the Himalayan republic is yet to get a new premier despite four rounds of election with none of the contenders – Maoist chief Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda or Nepali Congress leader Ram Chandra Poudel – able to get the support of half the lawmakers in the 601-member parliament mandatory to form the new government.
The postponement came after the declaration by the caretaker prime minister’s Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist Leninist that it will abstain from voting Wednesday. The Communists had stayed neutral in the earlier four elections as well, contributing to the fiasco.
The Communists have asked both contestants to withdraw their nomination so that a new alliance among the major parties can be worked out.
However, Poudel’s party has refused on the ground that since it supported the Communist government in the past, it was entitled to their backing. After the failure of both the Maoists and Communists to take the peace process forward, it says it should be allowed to have its turn at forming the new government.
The Maoists, realising the contest could continue endlessly without any side winning, say they are ready to withdraw from the race provided it is guaranteed that Poudel will too.
Meanwhile, a dissident NC leader and former home minister Khum Bahadur Khadka is asking for parliament to be dissolved and a new election to be held, saying the house had failed the country.
Some minor parties have also been making the same demand.
(Sudeshna Sarkar can be contacted at sudeshna.s@ians.in)
