Nepal MPs fail to elect president

2008-07-19 21:47

Kathmandu - Parliamentarians in Nepal on Saturday failed to elect the country's first president and end weeks of political deadlock after the abolition of the Himalayan monarchy, official television said.

The candidates were required to get half the votes in the 594-members Constituent Assembly to be elected.

Constituent Assembly chairperson Kul Bahadur Gurung announced that another election for the president would be held again on Monday. That contest would be between the two top candidates.

Ram Baran Yadav of the Nepali Congress party came the closest with 283 votes, followed by Ramraja Singh who garnered 270 votes. The third candidate, Ram Prit Paswan, got no votes.

Singh was initially projected to be the winner because he was nominated by the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), the party made up of former communist rebels and which was the largest in the assembly in the Himalayan country.

Electing a president 'a key step'

However, he lost the support of one of the four smaller parties at the last minute. The Madhesi People's Rights Forum, the fourth largest party in Nepal, decided to join the alliance between the Nepali Congress and Communist Party of Nepal (United Marxist-Leninist).

The Madhesi People's Rights Forum managed to get their candidate, Parmanandra Jha, elected as vice-president after joining the new alliance. Jha got 305 votes, Gurung said. There were four candidates contesting the vice-president's position.

It was the first time Nepal had held elections for a president and vice-president since the country abolished the centuries-old monarchy and declared a republic.

Electing a president was a key step in forming the new government because the winner would swear in the new prime minister, who ran the executive branch.

The Maoists won the most seats in the Constituent Assembly in April elections. The assembly, which abolished the monarchy in May, had been unable to form a new government because the main parties had bickered over forming a ruling coalition.

The last king, Gyanendra, was forced to give up authoritarian rule in April 2006 after weeks of pro-democracy protests and his powers were stripped soon afterward.

He was made to leave the royal palace and was living as a commoner in a summer home just outside the capital, Katmandu.

- AFP