With the Madhesi alliance’s decision to abstain from voting on Friday’s election for the post of prime minister, the delayed parliament session scheduled for today is unlikely to be able to elect a new PM.

Today’s meeting of the alliance decided not to participate in the election until assured its demands will be met. The alliance made public its charter of demands, which includes the demand of a Madhesi autonomous region with the right to self-determination, implementation of past agreements, and a guarantee of
28 per cent Madhesis in security, education and government services. They have demanded PLA management within four months and the beginning of the process of debarracking the YCL within a week.

The alliance turned down the Maoists’ written request to start talks and replied that they could sit for dialogue from Sunday.

The UCPN (Maoist) requires only 64 seats to make up a simple majority in parliament. Fringe parties command 67 votes, which would also be enough, but it is unlikely all would vote for the Maoists. In the last election for PM on Wednesday, the Rastriya Prajatantra Party (8 MPs) and and Janashakti Party (3 MPs) voted for the NC candidate, Ram Chandra Poudel.

The NC requires 187 votes, which it can only obtain with the support of the UML and the fringe parties. As the UML has already decided to abstain, the NC has no chance of winning the election in this round.

The Parliamentary Advisory Committee is currently holding a meeting to set another election date in the event of the failure of parliament to decide on a PM today.