Nembang made the announcement at the parliament meeting as per the recommendations of the Business Advisory Committee that met earlier in the morning.[break]
According to the parliament secretariat, the aspirants for the country´s top executive post can file their candidacy at the secretariat´s office in Singha Durbar from 11 am to 4:00 pm Friday. The secretariat will publish the final list of candidates at 4:30 pm the same day.
According to the committee members, the leaders are for holding a second round of voting on the same day if none of the candidates get elected in the first round.
“We have agreed to keep the option open for holding second round of voting later on the same day if none of the candidates get elected in the first round,” said Nepali Congress (NC) lawmaker Shobakar Parajuli, who was also present at the BAC meeting.
An aspirant for the prime ministerial post must be a lawmaker and garner more than fifty percent of the votes in the 601-seat parliament. Forging an alliance between the parties is necessary for the formation of a coalition government as none of the political parties command majority in the House.
As of Thursday, the largest UCPN (Maoist) has decided to field Vice-chairman Dr Baburam Bhattarai and the second largest party NC has announced Vice-president Ram Chandra Paudel as the party´s prime ministerial candidate. The third-largest CPN-UML, which has already headed two consecutive governments, has announced not to stake claim to government leadership this time around.
However, lawmakers are optimistic that the first round of voting itself would be decisive this time around as lawmakers can´t remain absent without consent of the speaker or abstain from voting. The speaker at the House meeting on Thursday directed all the lawmakers not to remain absent or abstain from voting.
Last time, 16 rounds of voting had failed to yield result as some political parties abstained and some others remained absent in the voting. Prime Minister Jhalanath Khanal was elected in the seventeenth round. Later, the parliamentary regulations were amended making it mandatory for the lawmakers to cast votes.
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