Nepal elects new Prime Minister

Kosh Raj Koirala – Asian Tribune Correspondent in Nepal

Kathmandu, 24 May, (Asiantribune.com): Senior leader of CPN-Madhav Kumar NepalUML Madhav Kumar Nepal on Saturday was elected unopposed as new Prime Minister of a Himalayan country Nepal.

Nepal was elected unopposed as 21 of the 24 political parties representing in the Constituent Assembly backed him and two other parties including Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), the largest of all other political parties, boycotted the election process. A fringe party called Nepali Janata Dal stayed also away from the election process.

Girija Prasad Koirala, President of Nepali Congress, the second largest party, had tabled a proposal in the House in favour of Nepal as the new Prime Minister. The proposal was seconded by the CPN-UML Chairman Jhala Nath Khanal.

Nepal was later nominated as the CA member under proportional seat vacated by a UML nominee and was subsequently appointed as the head of the Constitutional Committee.Madhav Kumar Nepal looks on after being elected as Nepal

The Maoists who make 238 seats in the 601-member parliament said their party has decided not to take part in the process as the government to be formed without restoring civilian supremacy would be a puppet of the army or foreigners. The party stepped down from the government on May 4 after President Dr Ram Baran Yadav blocked government move to sack army chief Rookmangud Katawal.

The parliament had failed to pick new prime minister for the last two weeks due to continuous obstruction of the House by Maoist lawmakers. They agreed to allow the House to run smoothly only on Thursday after Speaker Nembang took into notice a resolution filed by them demanding that the House instruct the president to correct his move.

In his brief remarks to media persons, Prime Minister Nepal said he is resolute to solve all problems facing the country through consensus. "I will keep up the culture of collaboration and consensus alive," he said.

Nepal, the former general secretary of the CPN-UML, is the third communist Prime Minister of the country after late Manmohan Adhikari and Pushpa Kamal Dahal. He was deputy prime minister in the minority government of the UML in 1996 B.S.

He remained the uncontested general secretary of the UML for nearly 16 years after the death of then general secretary Madan Bhandari in a mysterious road accident in 1994. He resigned from the post after he lost Constituent Assembly elections in April, 2008.

- Asian Tribune -