The UCPN (Maoist) was optimistic about making a breakthrough in today´s prime ministerial voting hoping that both the MPRF-D that commands 28 seats in parliament and MPRF that has 25 lawmakers would vote for its candidate. [break]
“We didn´t cast our votes today [Tuesday] as that would have been meaningless. Our support alone wouldn´t have sufficed to make the voting decisive,” MPRF Chairman Upendra Yadav told myrepublica.com. “What we wanted is a result.”
MPRF had decided not to stay neutral in the sixth round of voting on Sunday as well. But it refrained from participating on the similar grounds.
Though MPRF-D lawmakers didn´t cast their votes on Tuesday they decided to end the party´s neutrality in the next round scheduled for September 26.
“At a parliamentary party meeting today [Tuesday], we decided to end neutrality and cast our votes in the next round,” MPRF-D Chief Whip Ramjanam Chaudhary told myrepublica.com. He said the party would support the candidate who is ready to address issues raised by Madhes-based parties.
However, Pramod Gupta, one of the MPRF-D leaders lobbying in favor of Maoist candidate, said the party lawmakers are most likely to back Dahal.
“Supporting Poudel is meaningless as he has slim chances of winning the election. So all the lawmakers from our party, including Chairman Bijay Gachchhadar, have agreed to vote for Dahal so as to make the next round decisive,” Gupta claimed. Chaudhary, however, denied it.
Meanwhile, MPRF-D has decided to only send lawmaker Hem Raj Tated as representative of the party in the parliamentary meeting on Tuesday.
Sources said MPRF-D leaders chose to remain absent due to deepening dispute within the party. “We couldn´t turn up for the voting as discussion in our parliamentary party meeting prolonged until 6 pm while the voting started at 3 pm,” Chaudhary said. He, however, refused to divulge the details.
The third-largest CPN-UML stuck to its neutral stance while other parties including Tarai-Madhes Democratic Party, Sadbhawana Party and CPN-ML, among others, remained neutral.
In the voting, Dahal garnered 252 votes while his contender Ram Chandra Poudel of Nepali Congress (NC) secured 119. Of the 599 active members in the 601-seat parliament, 521 lawmakers cast their votes in first session voting for Dahal. Of them, 110 opposed him while 159 stood neutral.
Similarly, during the second voting session 245 opposed Poudel and 159 cast their votes for neutral position.
The eighth round of voting has been scheduled for September 26.
Related story
List of 15 MPs who have been absent for the longest time in par...
