Nepal's parliament failed to elect a new prime minister for the sixth time today as Maoist supremo Prachanda and his Nepali Congress rival Ramchandra Poudyal could not muster a majority, deepening the two-month constitutional crisis in the country.
More than two months after the 22-party coalition led by Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal collapsed, a sixth run-off poll failed to elect a new leader, with both Prachanda and 65-year-old Poudyal unable to get majority support of the lawmakers in the 601-member constituent assembly.
55-year-old Prachanda polled 240 votes, while 101 lawmakers voted against him. Poudyal received only 122 votes.
Out of the total 504 members present, 163 lawmakers stayed neutral. Lawmakers from CPN-UML and Terai based Madhesi parties remained neutral like in the earlier five rounds and abstained from voting.
Nepal's lawmakers have rejected Poudyal and Prachanda in the earlier five rounds of vote since Prime Minister Nepal quit on June 30 amid intense pressure from the former rebels, plunging the country into a deep political crisis in the absence of a government.
On August 23, Prachanda, a former prime minister, had managed to bag only 246 votes, with 111 members opposing him.
Poudyal also failed to touch the magic figure of 301, receiving just 124 votes in favour and 243 against, forcing the house to fix another round of voting for today.
Out of the total 563 lawmakers who participated in the voting, 206 members, mostly from CPN-UML and the Terai-based Madhesi parties, had remained neutral and abstained from voting.
The CPN-UML with the strength of 109 and the Madhesi alliance with the combine strength of 84 and other smaller parties have called for a national government and remained neutral and abstained from voting.
CPN-UML candidate Jhala Nath Khanal withdrew his candidature during the first round of voting on July 21 as he could not muster the two-thirds majority support in the House.
CPN-Maoist, which ended its decade-long civil war in 2006, is the single largest party with 238 seats in the 601-member Constituent Assembly, while Nepali Congress has 114 members in the House whose two-year term was extended by one year on May 28.
The country has been in political limbo since the June 30 resignation of Nepal, who is currently heading a caretaker government.
