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President Urges Parliament to Elect A New Prime Minister
By KTM Metro Reporter
January 16, 2011: in a statement released by the office of the President on Saturday, January 15, 2011, President Ram Baran Yadav has urged the parliament to elect a new prime minister following the Article 38 ‘Formulation of Council of Ministers’ of the Interim Constitution of Nepal of 2007 that states “(1) The Council of Ministers shall be formed under the chairpersonship of the Prime Minister on the basis of political understanding.
(2) Failing the understanding as referred to in Clause (1), the Prime Minister shall be elected by a majority of the total number of the then members of the Legislature-Parliament.”
Prime Minister Madhav Nepal has resigned from the office under the pressure of the leaders of his coalition partner parties rather than the opposition on June 30, 2010. Since then, the parliament has held sixteen rounds of election to a prime minister but it could not elect a new prime minister. In the first round, officiating Prime Minster Madhav Nepal has pulled out the candidate of the chairman of his party Jhalanath Khanal ostensibly for building a consensus on electing a new prime minister but really for stopping his archrival Khanal from being a next prime minister.
Then after eighth round of the election to a new prime minister, chairman of UCPN-Maoist Prachanda pulled out his candidate for a new prime minister leaving NC parliamentary leader Ram Chandra Poudel a single candidate for a new prime minister. He ran for the prime ministerial race for another eight rounds making sixteen rounds of elections to a new prime minister without success. Mr. Poudel could never garner more than one hundred votes against the required 301 votes but he has continued to run for the race really blocking the parliamentary session and stopping to form a new government for six and a half months thus setting the record of holding the parliament hostage for making unelected Madhav Nepal possible to continue the office of prime minister.
Then, the president prorogued the parliament session and ordered the officiating government to present the budget for the fiscal year 2010 making the mockery of democracy. Thus, the president has violated the norms and values of democracy stopping the parliament to pass the budget by the democratic process.
Officiating Prime Minister Madhav Nepal has grabbed another chance to continue his undemocratic administration refusing to recommend the president to call a session of the parliament. Former president of Nepal Bar Association and self-claimed legal expert Biswokant Mainali has advised the officiating prime minister not to call the parliamentary session until May 28, 2011: the last day of the extended term of the Constituent Assembly.
At the same time, UCPN-Maoist and a number of small political parties have submitted the signature of 187 legislators urging the president to call a parliamentary session. Following the Interim Constitution of Nepal of 2007 that has the provision for making the president to call a special session of the parliament if one fourth of the parliamentarian request in writing for a call of a parliamentary session, the president has called a special session of the parliament. However, the three major political parties such as UCPN-Maoist, NC and CPN-UML have agreed on calling a regular winter session of the parliament rather than the special session.
Finally, the president calls a regular session to be started on January 9, 2011. The House Speaker sets January 12 for running the 17th round of the election to a new prime minister. The NC leaders and CPN-UML leaders Madhav Nepal and KP Oli have tried their best to garner the majority support for NC candidate Ram Chandra Poudel. Madhav Nepal and KP Oli have even started the signature campaign for calling the meeting of the Central Committee for reversing the previous decision on not voting for Poudel. Madhav Nepal and KP Oli have called a meeting of the like-mined members of the central committee of CPN-UML provoking the disciplinary actions of their party. However, they have found too, late to reverse the decision of the central committee on not voting for Mr. Poudel.
Consequently, officiating Prime Minister Madhav Nepal has written a letter to the NC leaders stating his inability to reverse the decision on not voting for Mr. Poudel making Mr. Poudel impossible to get the required 301 votes for getting elected to a new prime minister. So, Mr. Poudel has either to pull out of the prime minister race or to get disgraced by the public. He chooses the first and pulls out his candidacy for the office of prime minister making possible to start the election to a new prime minister afresh.
Therefore, the president has urged the parliament to start the election to a new prime minister afresh first following the Article 38 (1) of the Interim Constitution of Nepal of 2007 if it is not possible by January 21 then follow the Article 38 (2) to elect a new prime minister. Whether the president has any authority to set the deadline for the prime ministerial election is not clear but one thing is clear that the president and the prime minister think that they can do and say whatever they like even going against the law of the land. This is the current status of democracy in Nepal.
