By Prensa Latina,
Kathmandu : Nepal has its first president now, in the wake of the election of Ram Baran Yadav by the Constituent Assembly.
However, problems of political transition get complicated, as it is yet to be known if the CPN-M (Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist), which won the elections in April, will even be joining the government, as expected.
Yadav, the leader of NC (the Nepali Congress Party), was elected by 308 of 590 possible votes, defeating Raja Prasad Singh, the candidate proposed by CPN-M.
This was thanks to a last-minute alliance between NC, the CPN-UML (Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist Leninist) and the MPRF (Madhesi People’s Rights Forum), which was described by the Maoist leadership as a sinful revenge maneuver.
NC, PCN-UML and MPRF joined against majority CPN-M in reprisal, because Maoists did not accept their proposals for symbolic posts of president and vice president, with MPRF promising support if the other two backed, as they did, its leader Paramananda Jha for the post of vice president.
The Maoist leadership insisted that the president, with a rather formal constitutional duty, as the burden of Executive responsibilities will fall on the prime minister’s shoulders, should be a notable from civil society rather than a politician.
Now, in view of the NC-CPN-UML-MPRF maneuver, the CPN-M Central Committee warned before the voting that it would refrain from joining the Government if Singh was not elected.