|
|
July 19, 2008
Nepal's First
Presidential Poll Ends in Fiasco,
Repoll Awaited
By Sudeshna
Sarkar
Kathmandu
The political uncertainty in Nepal deepened Saturday after the
Himalayan republic's first presidential election, held to elect the
successor to dethroned king Gyanendra as head of state, ended in a
fiasco with none of the contenders able to garner the simple
majority needed for victory.
The election gave a stunning blow to the Maoists, who had emerged as
the undoubted winners in the national election held in April, with
their candidate, a 73-year-old former revolutionary, falling behind
his main rival, Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala's man Ram Baran
Yadav.
Yadav, the dark horse in the race whose prospects of winning the
historic election received a fillip only Saturday morning after his
Nepali Congress (NC) party succeeded in cobbling a last-minute poll
pact with the communists and the Terai parties, was cheated of
victory by just four votes.
The 61-year-old veteran politician, who was a former minister and
has roots in neighboring India, garnered 294 votes, failing to
harvest the 298 required for winning the poll.
His Maoist-backed opponent, Ram Raja Prasad Singh, won 284 votes.
Now a repoll will have to be held between Yadav and Singh. The
constituent assembly, that also doubles up as Nepal's caretaker
parliament, was scheduled to sit later in the evening to announce a
date for the re-election.
The house however chose the nation's first vice-president
successfully. Parmanand Jha, a former Supreme Court judge who at the
centre of a controversy over a disputed verdict and was transferred
to a district court as punishment, sailed through the four-cornered
contest after being backed by the Terai parties.
The election became a complicated mathematical affair with only 578
lawmakers taking part. Sixteen members from four minor parties
boycotted the exercise in protest.
As per the constitution, the president has to be elected by a simple
majority in the house since the parliamentary parties failed to
reach a consensus. The three candidates in the ring, including
communist-backed Ram Preet Paswan, had a target of 298 votes.
In the morning, as voting started, it seemed Yadav would swing the
election after the NC, the Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist
Leninist (UML) and the Terai parties reached a poll agreement.
As the NC has 113 seats, the UML 108 and the Terai parties 82, it
was expected that Yadav would have an easy victory.
However, the secret ballot is likely to have seen some of the
members go against their party whips to support the Maoist
candidate.
In less than a week, the pendulum swung widely in the election for a
post that, though ceremonial, is now also a prestige issue and will
indicate the fate of the new government.
The race started when the name of Koirala, regarded as the chief
architect of the pact with the Maoist insurgents that brought peace
to violence-hit Nepal, was proposed for the post by party.
However, it was fiercely opposed by the Maoists, who feared
Koirala's appointment would create a formidable rival for the new
government, which they expect to lead.
Initially the Maoists proposed Singh as Nepal's first president.
More than two decades ago, Singh had led an armed struggle for a
republic and set off bomb blasts at the palace in Kathmandu as well
as the parliament complex.
However, Singh was unceremoniously dropped this week after the
Maoists cobbled an understanding with the UML and agreed to support
its candidate for president.
But in a dramatic twist on the eve of the election, the Maoists
announced they would not support the UML since it was pushing its
former chief Madhav Kumar Nepal, who had lost the April election
from both his constituencies.
In a bolt from the blue for the communists, the former guerrillas
again sprung the name of Singh as their candidate.
Though the Maoists are the largest party with 226 seats, they needed
a major ally to muster a simple majority.
It seemed Singh would streak past his rivals after the Maoists
patched up with their bitterest foes, the three Terai parties.
But in another dramatic turn Friday, the Terai bloc said they would
not vote for Singh unless the Maoists withdrew their
vice-presidential candidate, former parliamentarian Shanta Shrestha,
and instead supported their Terai candidate, former judge Jha.
Meanwhile, angered by the Maoist “betrayal”, the UML formed a
counter-alliance with the prime minister's party and by Saturday had
also lured the Terai parties into the fold.
Seasoned politicians indicated that the poll fiasco would have a
negative impact on the peace process as well as the drafting of the
new constitution, which is regarded as a key step in ushering peace
and stability in Nepal.
“It is a bad omen,” NC lawmaker Gagan Thapa said. “It shows up the
growing mistrust among the parties, who in the race for power are
forgetting that their real mandate is to write a new constitution.”
IANS
|
July 19, 2008
Top
|
|
