KATHMANDU: Veteran politician Sushil Koirala was expected to become Nepal’s new prime minister after a rival political party announced its support on Sunday, ending months of deadlock following last year’s elections.
Parliament will convene today to vote for a premier, paving the way for the formation of a government charged with ending a prolonged political crisis that has crippled the Himalayan nation’s economy.
Koirala, 75, is expected to be the only candidate after his Nepali Congress party—which topped the polls last November—secured the backing of the Unified Marxist-Leninist party (UML), which came second.
UML chairman Jhalanath Khanal said his legislators would vote for Koirala, a veteran politician who, as a young activist, once spent three years in jail for his involvement in the hijacking of a plane. Khanal said the decision follows extensive negotiations within the party and with Nepali Congress on Sunday on the make-up of the new coalition government.
“Our party has decided to support Nepali Congress in the election for the prime minister,” Khanal told reporters. “The details of the deal will be out soon. Everything will be agreed on a package. We are also discussing the new government’s policy and programme,” Khanal said.
Nepal held elections on November 19 for a constituent assembly or parliament, charged with writing a constitution aimed at bringing stability to a country still divided by the legacy of a decade-long civil war.
But a new government was not formed, amid a row within Nepali Congress over who should be prime minister. The party finally chose its president Koirala after a vote of its legislators last month.
The party had also become bogged down in negotiations with other parties on forming a coalition. The party won 196 seats last November and the UML secured 175. The Maoists were relegated to a humiliating third place with just 80 seats. The Maoists, who traded their guns for politics after signing a pact to end the civil war in 2006, initially claimed fraud.
But they agreed in December to join the assembly after securing a pledge from the other parties for an inquiry into their claims.
AFP
