Oct 12, 2010

Wither Mr Prime Minister?

Failure to elect a Prime Minister for the ninth time has not deterred Nepal’s political leadership to seek a tenth round of elections on 6 October. While the Unified CPN M has withdrawn the name of the candidate Chairman Pushpa Kumar Dahal in the last two rounds, the Nepal Congress is persisting with fielding Mr Ram Chandra Poudel, though it is more than evident as indicated in the tables below that he does not have a chance to win the post as even attendance in the last two elections has gone down to just over 180. Yet Nepal Congress is persisting with participation in the next round.   

The withdrawal of candidature of Mr Dahal was also a sign of the deep divisions within his party between the Mohan Vaidya camp which wants a people’s republic and the Baburam Bhattarai camp of moderates. There were some fears that the Maoists or at least a faction would walk out of the peace agreement. But Mr Dahal has claimed that there was no such possibility. While this is reassuring lack of consensus between leadership in the Party is also a cause of the present political impasse as a firm commitment to divesting many organizations such as the Young Communist League accused of violent interference in many parts of the country has not been possible.

However on 17 September the Maoists and CPN UML went for a 3-pt deal which led Dahal to withdraw PM candidacy and explore ways to end the political deadlock. The two parties reached an agreement to initiate the prime ministerial selection process on national consensus basis. Now efforts are on to dissuade Nepal Congress to stop fielding a candidate for the Prime Minister’s post, hopefully some sense will prevail and a compromise will be reached.

            The political deadlock in Nepal is certainly having a major impact on the economy of the country as it is seen that there is no progress on development and governance fronts as the government is lacking any leeway for spending as there are no budgetary allotments made with the Caretaker Government not allowed to present a full budget in the Parliament. The parties need to at least ensure that they allow the Caretaker government to pass a Vote on Account permitting government spending as the administration of the country is coming to a grinding halt.

OCT 2010