Third time unlucky - Nepali Times

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Third time unlucky
Parliament failed to elect a new prime minister for the third consecutive time on Monday.

FROM ISSUE #513 (30 JULY 2010 - 05 AUG 2010) | TABLE OF CONTENTS

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When voting finally took place late Monday, UCPN (Maoist) candidate Pushpa Kamal Dahal obtained 259 votes from the 581 members present in the house, up from the 241 votes he had obtained in the second round of voting. CPN (Marxist and Leninist), Nepal Peasants and Workers Party, and a few small parties voted for Dahal but he fell short of the required 301 votes for a simple majority to form a government. 114 members voted against him and 208 opted for 'no-voting'.

NC candidate Ram Chandra Poudel received 124 votes in his favour from the 556 members who were present, the same number he had received last time around. 246 lawmakers voted against him and 186 did not vote for or against.

Voting, scheduled for 4pm, was delayed by five hours as the Madhesi alliance held internal meetings to decide whether to support any candidate, and the UCPN (Maoist) tried to convince fringe parties.

The Madhesi alliance decided to stay neutral in the end, saying the written commitments offered by both the UCPN (Maoist) and the NC did not address its demands for an autonomous Madhes province with the right to self-determination and mass recruitment of Madhesis into the Nepal Army. Despite MJF President Upendra Yadav being in support of voting for the Maoists, other parties in the alliance were opposed to doing so.

The next election has been scheduled for Thursday, 5 August.

1. Shree Shrestha
Just forget about electing primeminister. Let the president have it all.

Posted on: 02 AUG 2010 | 1:40 AM NST

2. Satya Nepali (1)
Nowhere else, but in Nepal, do we witness something like this. If the politicians cannot decide who should be PM, then maybe the President should take over and be caretaker, while the politicians get down to their real business: writing the constitution! How is it okay for politicians to keep haggling like this, drawing their salaries and benefits and sucking away state resources, while delivering nothing?! Is this what "democracy" in "New Nepal" is for? So that politicians can go on doing nothing for as long as they like and even get paid for it?

Posted on: 02 AUG 2010 | 2:44 AM NST

3. Satya Nepali (2)

Worst of all is how the media and "civil society" let off the politicians for such disgraceful and irresponsible behavior without any criticism. This paper calls it ï¿½unluckyï¿½. "Unlucky"?! Is this what you mean by "press freedom"? Your freedom to insult our intelligence any which way you like? What has "luck" got to do with any of this? One can only imagine your hysteria if the King or Army had done anything as remotely as irresponsible as this. Youï¿½d be wringing your hair and screaming yourself hoarse in that case. For all your pretensions, you are but a shameless abuser, a rapist, of the concept of free press and independent journalism. You abuse it to suit your interests. Your deeply partisan reporting reflects your hypocrisy and double standards!

Posted on: 02 AUG 2010 | 2:46 AM NST

4. Akanchhya Gurung

What a shame for Puspa Kamal Dahal Or Ram Chandra Paudel....????

They are again hopeful for Round 4..........Common, find a consensus candidate like Babu Ram Bhattarai and make a national coalition government,instead....................

Act fast....!!!! You 2 idiots can not take hostage of our country,economy and development. Pave way for healthy outcomes........Act Fast.....

Jay Nepal

Posted on: 03 AUG 2010 | 2:27 PM NST

5. Budabaaje
Right. If the King were around heï¿½d pick a PM and weï¿½d all get on with it. But now the Bahunbadi parties can go on endlessly with their bakroom dealings, back-stabbings, horse-tradings, pork barrelling and what not while the country goes to the dogs! Welcome to this brand ï¿½new Nepalï¿½! By the time we have a PM, the countryï¿½ll probably be divided up into Madhes, Himal, Pahad and who knows what else? In fact, why not just become part of India and declare Manmohan Singh the PM of Nepal?!

Posted on: 03 AUG 2010 | 1:46 AM NST