Nepal’s 21 political parties that represent in the Constituent Assembly have supported Maoist prime ministerial candidate Prachanda.
Earlier, general Secretary of the Unified Marxist-Leninist (UML) Jhalanath Khanal had proposed Maoist Chairman as the prime ministerial candidate before a special session of the Constituent Assembly.
Addressing the special CA session, senior Maoist leader Dr. Baburam Bhattarai said that his party had been trying for a national consensus in favor of changes as per the people’s mandate through the insurgency, movement and the election.
Dr. Bhattarai asked the Nepali Congress (NC) to join the national government by changing its conservative mentality.
But NC Vice-President Ram Chandra Poudel expressed his party’s apprehensions over the Maoist leadership in the coming government.
Poudel expressed his party’s worry about the neutrality of army, judiciary and bureaucracy under the Maoist leadership.
Poudel stressed that the NC decided not to join the new government to be led by the CPN-Maoist because Maoists were not trustworthy. He, instead, proposed ex-Prime Minister and senior NC leader Sher Bahadur Deuba as the prime ministerial candidate.
Another NC leader Bimalendra Nidhi supported the candidate.
However, supporting the proposal by Khanal, the Coordinator of the Madhesi Janadhikar Forum (MJF) Upendra Yadav said that his party stands in favor of changes, not in favor of status quoism.
He said that his party supported the Maoist prime ministerial candidate because Maoists were the ones who established most of the progressive agenda, including federal republic, state restructuring and inclusive democracy.
Terai-Madhesh Democratic Party, Nepal Sadbhawana Party, Rastriya Prajatantra Party-Nepal and 17 other fringe parties supported Prachanda for prime minister.
Dissatisfied with both the Maoist and Nepali Congress leaderships, three parties, namely, Rastriya Janamorcha, Nepal Worker-Peasants Party and Rastriya Janashakti Party led by ex-Prime Minister Surya Bahadur Thapa decided not to support any prime ministerial candidate.
Prachanda is sure to become the first elected prime minister after Nepal entered the federal republican setup following the abolition of 240-year old monarchy.
There are only two prime ministerial candidates: Maoist leader Prachanda and Nepali Congress leader Sher Bahadur Deuba. Election results are likely to come out after a few hours.
First published in www.nepalekhabar.com
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