Kathmandu: Nepal`s special session of
parliament to elect a new prime minister was adjourned on Sunday
after a brief meeting, amid a political deadlock among the
ruling alliance and the main Opposition Maoists.
The Special Session of the Parliament, which just
lasted for less than 10 minutes, was adjourned after Speaker
Subash Nemwang announced the next House sitting for December
23.
Earlier today, the Business Advisory Committee (BAC)
of the parliament decided to hold the next House session on
December 23, the nepalnews online said.
Acting on a request from 187 Maoist lawmakers,
President Ram Baran Yadav last week called a session of
Parliament from today in a bid to break the political deadlock
over failure of lawmakers to elect a new leader despite 16
rounds of polls since Madhav Kumar Nepal quit on June 30.
During the brief session today, Nemwang read out the
letter from the President`s office.
The Speaker also informed the lawmakers that the House
will discuss two proposals of the Unified CPN (Maoist) on
December 23 and 24, including one seeking a fresh process for
electing the prime minister and scrapping the candidature of
Nepali Congress leader Ram Chandra Poudyal, the sole candidate
for the top post, the report said.
Maoist party Vice Chairman Baburam Bhattarai said the
parties have reached an understanding to hold discussions for
consensus.
"We will try to forge consensus by December 23,"
Bhattarai was quoted as saying by the Kantipur online.
Nepal`s ruling alliance yesterday had decided to
oppose the Maoists` plan to table a motion to begin a fresh
process to elect the Prime Minister.
CPN-Maoist, which ended its decade-long civil war in
2006, is the single largest party with 238 seats, while Nepali
Congress (NC) has 114 members in the House.
The CPN-UML, the third largest party with a strength
of 109 and the Madhesi alliance with the combined strength of
some 80 lawmakers and other smaller parties have called for a
national government.
The deadlock over the election of the prime minister
comes amid a landmark Supreme Court ruling that lawmakers in
parliament cannot choose to remain neutral or abstain from
from casting their votes in the run-off poll.
In a series of run-off polls since June 30, the UCPN
(Maoist) and CPN (UML) lawmakers have chosen not to vote for a
prime minister while Madhesi parties opted to stay neutral.
A special bench of Justices Bal Ram KC, Sushila Karki
and Bharat Raj Upreti on Friday ruled that lawmakers attending
the parliamentary session during the election for a prime
minister cannot remain neutral or desist from casting their
votes.
PTI
