M K Nepal elected new Nepali PM

NEPAL: Madhav Kumar Nepal, a senior leader and Standing Committee Member of the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist) (CPN-UML) was elected new prime minister of the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal on Saturday.

The Legislature-Parliamentary session of the Constituent Assembly (CA) unopposedly elected M.K. Nepal as the country’s new PM with a majority.

M.K. Nepal, also the former General Secretary of CPN-UML, was announced second PM of Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal by CA chairman Subash Nemwang after the parliamentary meeting.

CA chairman Nemwang declared Nepal unopposed as the prime minister, saying that he was doing so since no one else had filed their nomination for the post.

Though the timeframe for the nomination at the election committee of CA was set from 10:00 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. (0415-0730 GMT) on Saturday, no one except M.K. Nepal filed their nomination for the post. Out of 24 parties represented at CA, M.K. Nepal was supported by some 21 parties except the largest party, UCPN-M and Communist Party of Nepal (Unified). In the 601 seat parliament, he was backed by around 360 lawmakers excluding 238 lawmakers from UCPN-M and two from CPN-M.

Kathmandu, Sunday, Xinhua