PM Pushpa Kamal Dahal cancels visit to Qatar
AMN / KATHMANDU
The election, to choose Nepal’s third president, is scheduled for March 9. The Election Commission has already published the election calendar.
As the nomination is completed on Saturday, complaints, if any, against the candidates should be filed on Sunday and Monday. A candidate willing to withdraw can do so on February 26, which is also the day for the publication of the final candidate list.
Nepal’s presidential election has culminated into a showdown between two experienced politicians: Nepali Congress senior leader Ram Chandra Paudel and CPN-UML vice-chair Subas Nembang. The leaders, both of whom have previously served as Speaker of the House of Representatives, filed their candidacies on Saturday.
As things stand, Paudel is most likely to get elected as the next head-of-state as he has the backing of eight parties—the Congress, plus the CPN (Maoist Centre), the Janata Samajbadi Party, the CPN (Unified Socialist), the Janamat Party, the Loktantrik Samajbadi Party, the Nagarik Unmukti Party and the Rastriya Janamorcha. No other party has as yet declared its support for Nembang’s candidacy.
Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal has cancelled his visit to Doha of Qatar in view of the elections to the President and Vice-President in the country.
Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ was scheduled to leave for Doha, Qatar on 3rd of next month to participate in the Fifth Conference of the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) taking place there.
A meeting of the eight political parties attended by chief leaders of Nepali Congress, Maoist Centre, CPN (US), JSP, LSP, Janamat Party, Nagarik Unmukti Party and Rastriya Janamorcha has formed a task force in view of the upcoming presidential election. The eight-party meeting has decided to agree on the NC candidate for the President’s election.
The meeting held at the Prime Minister’s official residence in Baluwatar yesterday formed the panel led by NC vice-president Purna Bahadur Khadka.
CPN (Maoist Centre) general secretary Dev Gurung, CPN (Unified Socialist) general secretary Beduram Bhusal, a senior leader of Janata Samajwadi Party Rajendra Shrestha, Janamat Party’s Abdul Khan, Sarat Singh Bhandari of Loktantrik Samajwadi Party, Ranjita Shrestha of Nagarik Unmukti Party and Chitra Bahadur KC of the Rastriya Janamorcha Nepal are the members in the Khadka-led taskforce.
The task force members shall coordinate the respective parties’ voters in the presidential election scheduled for 9th March. The meeting has also decided to direct the eight parties’ lawmakers to arrive in Kathmandu by 7th March for the purpose of the presidential election.
Yesterday’s meeting urged one and all to support NC’s presidential candidate Ram Chandra Poudel for the post of president.
Furthermore, the leaders in the meeting discussed the election to the vice president, recent political development and power sharing. Prime Minister and CPN (Maoist Centre) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’, NC President Sher Bahadur Deuba and other party leaders were also at the meeting.