KATHMANDU: Nepal`s Maoist party scrambled Monday to win fresh support for its bid to head the next government, a day ahead of a parliamentary vote on a new prime minister -- the seventh attempt to pick a leader.
Six ballots in the 601-member parliament, the last on Sunday, have failed to elect a prime minister, with neither of the two candidates still in the running securing the absolute majority needed.
Parliament announced Monday that the next vote would be held Tuesday.
Nepal has been without a government since June 30, when former prime minister Madhav Kumar Nepal stood down under pressure from the opposition Maoist party to pave the way for a new power-sharing administration.
Since then, political leaders have been unable to agree on the shape of the new government.
The Maoists, who fought a decade-long civil war against the state before transforming themselves into a political party ahead of 2008 elections, hold the largest number of seats in parliament, although not enough to govern alone.
But they now say they are close to winning the support of several small ethnic-minority parties for their candidate, party chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal, better known by his nom de guerre Prachanda or "the fierce one".
He is standing against Ram Chandra Poudel, chairman of the second-largest party in parliament, the centrist Nepali Congress, and won the last vote 240-122, short of the 301 required.
Four parties representing Nepal`s Madhesi ethnic minority hold 82 seats and the Maoist chief whip Post Bahadur Bogati told AFP: "We have asked the Madhesi parties to vote for us in the next election to end the stalemate.
"We urge them not to continue holding the country hostage by maintaining a neutral position."
Their support would be enough to give Dahal an absolute majority and party leaders are reported to be in talks about forming a coalition government, although no deal has yet been done.
If Dahal wins Tuesday`s vote it will be his second stint as prime minister of Nepal.
He headed a Maoist-led coalition government formed in 2008 but resigned in May 2009 after a row with the then army chief over the integration of former Maoist combatants into the military.
BDST: 1354 HRS, September 06, 2010
