Asia

Asia

Nepal’s Parliament Elects Prime Minister

04 February 2011 00:26 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Nepal’s parliament has elected a new prime minister in its 17th attemptâ€”seven months after the last government resigned amid sometimes violent protests, APA reports quoting The Wall Street Journal.
Jhalnath Khanal, leader of the Communist Party of Nepal (United Marxist-Leninist), secured 368 of 601 votes.
Last May, members of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), which holds the most seats in parliament, took to the streets, demanding the prime minister’s resignation so the party could form a new government. The Maoists, former rebels who laid down their arms to join a peace process and then won the most seats in 2008 elections, previously had run the government. But the Maoist government resigned over differences with the president over the implementation of the peace process that ended their decade-long insurgency.
Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal then took over, but the Maoists immediately called a general strike, and he resigned under the pressure in late June.
The government has been deadlocked since. No candidate was able to secure a majority in the 16 votes held over the past several months, and the parties were unable to agree on a coalition government.
On Thursday, in the 17th vote, Mr. Khanal’s 368 votes were enough to become prime minister. His party is just the third largest party in the parliament, but it received support from the Maoists. Maoist leader Pushpa Kamal Dahal, who himself was a candidate, said the party had decided to support Mr. Khanal to end the stalemate.
Mr. Khanal, 60 years old, is a veteran politician who was involved in the pro-democracy protests against the monarchy in 1990 and again in 2006. This would be his first time serving as the prime minister.
The political stalemate has set back progress on a constitution and a peace process that ended a Maoist insurgency, which claimed thousands of lives. Now the government must turn to the fate of the thousands of former Maoist fighters who are still in camps and the writing of a new constitution.