Festival break fails to fire Nepal PM poll

KATHMANDU - As Nepal’s parliamentary parties go to vote Tuesday in an unprecedented 13th round to elect a new prime minister, there are indications the exercise would prove futile once again with the major parties sticking to their contrary stands.

The opposition Maoist party, the largest in parliament but forced to exit from the race after a vote-buying scandal, seemed resigned to the fact that it was not likely to head the new government.

Maoist supremo Pushpa Kamal Dahal, who withdrew his nomination last month, will not even take part in the vote Tuesday, being away on a controversial junket to China.

One of his deputies, Mohan Vaidya Kiran, who leads the hardliners in the former guerrilla party, said the Maoists were ready to continue sitting in opposition.

Though the Maoists are out of the race, yet the lone contestant in the ring, former deputy prime minister Ram Chandra Poudel, said he would not quit Tuesday even though he would not be able to win.

Poudel, a veteran leader from the centrist Nepali Congress party, has not been able to garner the nearly 300 votes required to win the election as most of the large parties, including the Maoists and the communists, have been sitting neutral.

Yet Nepal’s unique election system dictates that the futile election - that started with three candidates - has to be continued till Poudel manages to muster simple majority or finally decides to throw in the towel.

The communists, who withdrew their candidate when the elections started in July, are seeking a change in the election procedure. So do the Maoists.

However, there can’t be a change unless the Nepali Congress also agrees and the party so far has rejected a change, fearing it would then enable an opportunistic Maoist-communist alliance to form the new government.

The infighting among the major parties has held Nepal hostage for nearly four months, driving it on the brink of one crisis after another.

The republic has less than three months to discharge and rehabilitate the Maoists’ guerrilla army with its nearly 19,500 combatants, and less than seven months to draft a new constitution.

The caretaker government, unable to pass the budget due to Maoist opposition, is also running out of funds.

In the coming fortnight, another tussle between the caretaker government and the Maoists is on the cards when the ruling parties try to push through the new budget.