Dahal only candidate for PM, House set to hold voting
KATHMANDU: The Parliament Secretariat has published a notice on Tuesday late afternoon saying CPN Maoist Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal is the only candidate in the prime ministerial election.
Dahal, however, will have to witness voting to get elected as the new Prime Minister. The Legislature-Parliament is scheduled to hold election at 11 am tomorrow.
Backed by Nepali Congress and Madhesi parties among others, the 61-year-old Maoist leader had filed his nomination at 11:26 earlier today.
The Nepali Congress-Maoist alliance has already garnered support from majority lawmakers to elect Dahal as KP Sharma Oli's successor in Singhadarbar. Currently, there are 595 members in the Parliament.
At least 357 lawmakers from 16 parties and an independent MP have extended support to Dahal, according to Rastriya Samachar Samiti.
The Rastriya Prajatantra Party-Nepal is yet to make a formal decision on whether to support Dahal or cast vote against him. The meeting of RPP-Nepal's Central Committee and Parliamentary Party witnessed differing views today. The party has called a meeting of its CC and PP at 9 am tomorrow.
Supporters
Nepali Congress: 207
Maoist Centre: 81
FSF-Nepal: 15
MJF-Democratic: 14
RPP: 12
TMDP: 11
Sadbhawana: 5
CPN-United: 3
Others: 22
The nomination deadline was till 4:00 pm. However, no party or lawmaker dared challenge the former rebel leader in the prime ministerial race for his second innings as the country's chief executive.
Though outgoing Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli's party CPN-UML had mulled pitching former Speaker Subas Chandra Nembang against Dahal, it decided not challenge the Maoist leader with its candidate but vote against him in the election tomorrow.
The final list of candidate(s) was published after 4:30 pm.
Dahal has already served as Nepal's Prime Minister from August 2008 to May 2009.
He was elected to the Constituent Assembly II from Siraha Constituency No. 5.
After they could not build consensus on a single candidate, President Bidya Devi Bhandari called the parties in the Parliament to elect new Prime Minister through voting as per the Article 298(3) of Constitution of Nepal.
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