Nepal might hold Presidential Election on July 19

Nepal Sets Date for Presidential Election
Still no agreement on who should get the top post
Kishor Panthi (kishor)
	Published 2008-07-16 07:14 (KST)

Date of Election

On Tuesday the Constituent Assembly of Nepal fixed the date for the election of the first president of the nation: July 19. The CA passed the election procedures recommended by the CA Procedures Advisory Committee. Under the procedure that has been adopted for election for the presidency, the winner will have to get at least 51 percent of the total votes in the CA.

Dispute over Candidate

The date of the election has been fixed at a time when the major parties have failed to decide on a presidential candidate. If the parties -- CPN-Maoist, Congress and CPN-UML -- agree on a candidate by July 17, no election will need to be held.

The Maoists have refused to consider the top leaders of UML and the Congress party for the presidency.

In Tuesday's meeting between top leaders of the CPN-Maoist and the CPN-UML, the Maoists are said to have been ready to give the post to the UML but not ready to nominate its former general secretary, Madhav Kumar Nepal, for president.

For its part, the Congress party has nominated its leader, Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala, for presidency, but the Maoists have said that they are not ready to accept Koirala for the presidency.

Fruitless Meeting

The discussion between the UML and the Maoists, which was meant to finalize the candidate for the country's first president, ended inconclusively.

The meeting was attended by the chairman of the CPN-Maoist, Prachanda, senior leader Baburam Bhattarai and the general secretary of the CPN-UML, Jhala Nath Khanal, among others.