The third largest party, which firmly stayed neutral in the earlier four rounds of voting, has reiterated that it will not change its stance in the fifth round of voting scheduled for August 18 as well.[break]
"Though our party has not changed its stance on the ongoing prime ministerial election we decided to call the meeting with a view to receive feedbacks from our lawmakers in connection with our party´s efforts toward forging consensus," UML Chief Whip Bhim Acharya told Republica.
UML Chairman Jhalanath Khanal, who was forced to withdraw his candidacy after the first round of voting, has been lobbying for withdrawal of prime ministerial candidacies by both the NC and the Maoists and to start the process afresh. Currently, Pushpa Kamal Dahal of UCPN (Maoist) and Ram Chandra Poudel of Nepali Congress (NC) are in the prime ministerial race.
Usually UML parliamentary party meetings are marked by fierce arguments and counterarguments between factions led by party chairman Jhalanath Khanal and UML heavyweight KP Sharma Oli. But Monday´s meeting is unlikely to hold much significance as the party´s all-powerful central committee (CC) last Wednesday has already decided to cast neutral votes as earlier.
"Since the central committee has already directed us to stay neutral, I don´t even see any point in holding the parliamentary party meeting. As the parliamentary party cannot challenge central committee´s decision, it is obvious that we shall vote for neutral position,” said parliamentarian Deepak Karki, who is close to Oli.
While Khanal faction is vigorously convincing other parties as well to stay neutral in the fifth round of voting to exert pressure on the Maoists and NC to withdraw their candidacies, the Oli faction is against his party´s stance to stay neutral. Eighteen CC members loyal to Oli wrote notes of dissent against the CC meeting decision on Wednesday.
The legislature-parliament has failed to elect the new prime minister even after four rounds of voting mainly due to UML´s neutral position.
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