CPN-UML KP Sharma Oli asked about completing the cabinet and upcoming presidential election during the ruling coalition’s high-level coordinating committee meeting in Baluwatar on Friday.
But Prime Minister (PM) Pushpa Kamal Dahal did not provide clear answers, according to a Baluwatar source. “The reinduction of the Rastriya Swatantra Party into the government was also discussed at the meeting.”
The Janata Samajwadi Party (JSP) did not participate in the meeting because JSP Chairman Upendra Yadav had just returned to Kathmandu from Janakpur when the meeting began. I couldn’t attend due to lack of time. But the way the coalition is moving forward will not work. We have not said who we will vote for in the presidential election,” Yadav told Setopati.
Five ministries are currently vacant after RSP left the government. UML has also been pressing the coalition to support the party’s candidate in the presidential election. But Dahal has not provided clear answers.
Dahal has been saying recently that it would be better if the president were elected by national consensus. He even called an all-party meeting in Baluwatar and proposed that a national consensus be forged for the constitutional posts, but CPN-UML Chairman KP Sharma Oli rejected the proposal out of hand.
UML leaders have been claiming that there was an agreement on giving the posts of chairman and president to UML before forming the government. But it is not yet known if the agreement was written or verbal.
The Maoist Center has not yet specified what the national consensus the party is seeking is. But UML suspects that the Maoist Center wants to give the post of president to the Nepal Congress (NC) in exchange for the vote of confidence in the Dahal government in violation of the power-sharing agreement in the coalition.
Most Maoist leaders also appear to be against giving the UML the role of president.
Both UML and NC have already announced that they will present candidates for the presidential elections. The Maoist Center may prove decisive in the presidential elections.
The Electoral Commission will hold the presidential election on March 9 and the vice-presidential election on March 17.
