Thursday’s vote in the Constituent Assembly was the 11th attempt since Madhav Kumar Nepal resigned as prime minister in June. He continues to run a caretaker administration.
The sole candidate, Ram Chandra Poudel, leader of the second-largest party in parliament, the centrist Nepali Congress, garnered only 104 votes, far short of the total of 301 needed to gain a simple majority and form a government. Other parties abstained from the vote.
Speaker Subash Nemwang set Sunday as the date for the next vote. Nepal’s political groups have been unable to agree on the shape of the new administration despite a series of votes in the 601-member house. Former Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal stood down on June 30 because of pressure from the opposition Maoist party.
The Maoists, who fought a decade-long civil war against the state before transforming themselves into a political party and winning 2008 elections, hold the largest number of seats in Parliament, but not enough to govern alone.
Their candidate, party chairman Pushpa Kama Dahal, known as Prachanda or “the fierce one,” was the front-runner in earlier votes, but withdrew to pave the way for fresh talks on forming a national consensus government. The stalemate has halted work on the peace process that began when the bloody civil war ended in 2006. Parliament has said the next election will be held on October 10, further delaying the annual budget and holding up much-needed public spending in one of the world’s poorest countries.
