Nepal buys more time to end deadlock

Kathmandu, Jan 21: Nepal's deadlock parties decided to seek five more days to form a national consensus government, as President Ram Baran Yadav's deadline to end the long political deadlock expired on Friday Jan 21.

The top leaders of three main political parties - the main opposition UCPN (Maoist) and the two ruling alliance partners CPN (UML) and the Nepali Congress, agreed to ask the President for five move days to form a national consensus government on Friday, Jan 21.

Last week, the first president of the Republic, had directed the political parties to elect a Prime Minister before Jan 21 and form a new government on the basis of national consensus.

In a meeting held at the Ministry of Peace, UCPN (Maoist), Nepali Congress (NC) and CPN-UML will take the proposal to endorse the agreement on extending the deadline for consensus government formation to a meeting of 28 parties for endorsement, the Himalayan Times online reported.

Maoist chairman Prachanda, Nepali Congress president Sushil Koirala, CPN-UML chairman Jhalanath Khanal were present at the meeting.

Meanwhile, the House failed to meet amid the disagreement over amendments to end the deadlock over the prime ministerial election, the report said.

The House is scheduled to meet on Monday, according to the parliament secretariat.

The President's call for a national government came after Nepali Congress, the second largest party, withdrew its sole Prime Ministerial candidate RC Poudyal last week, paving the way for a fresh process to elect a new leader.

Nepali Congress decided to ask Poudyal to quit the race amid intense pressure from its key coalition partner CPN-UML, main opposition UCPN (Maoist) and from within the party in a bid to build a consensus to end the deadlock that has derailed the 2006 peace process.

The Parliament had rejected Poudyal in 16th rounds of voting since the resignation of Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal on Jun 30, 2010.

Amid Nepal's political deadlock, the UN pulled out its peace mission on Jan 15. The government has announced that a special panel of security forces and Maoist combatants has been deployed in different parts of the country to monitor the arms and army of the former rebels and the military.

PTI