Kathmandu: Nepalese political parties on Saturday stepped up last-minute consultations ahead of the election for a new prime minister even as there was no clear winner in sight, with both the Maoist candidate Baburam Bhattarai and his Nepali Congress rival RC Poudyal unable to get the open support of the key parties.

CPN-UML, the third largest party, and the Terai-based Madhesi parties remained undecided on who they would support in the election for the prime minister tomorrow.

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The CPN-UML has called a meeting of its Standing Committee today where they hope to take a decision on the issue. Similarly, the Joint Democratic Madhesi Front (JDMF), an alliance of the Terai based parties with 66 seats, is meeting CPN-UML leaders today to finalise its decision.

The Maoists have held meetings with the CPN-UML and the fringe parties while Nepali Congress held consultations with JDMF and small leftist groups in an attempt to woo their support. No party holds a majority of seats in the 601-member parliament. The UCPN-Maoist, which has 236 seats in the Constituent Assembly, is largest party in the Assembly, which acts as the country`s interim Parliament. The second largest Nepali Congress has 114 members in the House followed by CPN-UML, which has 107 members.

Prime Minister Jhal Nath Khanal resigned on August 14 after failing to make "concrete" process in the peace process. Khanal was elected after 17 rounds of polls in Parliament over a period of seven months.

Jaya Prakash Gupta, president of Madhesi Peoples Rights Forum (Republic), an ally of the JDMF, indicated that the Front may put its weight behind Maoist candidate Bhattarai if the former rebels show more flexibility toward addressing the demands of the Madhesi people and commitment to the peace process. Meanwhile, the Nepali Congress today unveiled an 11-point concept paper which envisages giving a momentum to the stalled peace process, drafting a new constitution and addressing the outstanding issues linked to the integration of the former Maoists combatants, including modality, norms and standards and rank harmonization of the former PLA fighters.

The main opposition party said it would give priority to the peace process and constitution drafting processes, good governance and economic progress if its candidate is elected to lead the next government.

The Maoists floated a peace proposal on Thursday to complete the integration of their former combatants with the security forces within 45 days.

The Parliament was directed by President Ram Baran Yadav to elect a new Prime Minister through majority vote after political parties failed to nominate a consensus candidate to lead a national unity government.

As per the amended regulations, there will not be more than three rounds of voting. No lawmaker will be allowed to stay neutral or boycott the election.

PTI