Nepal Maoists lose presidential vote:

state TV Mon Jul 21, 5:59 AM ET

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Lawmakers in Nepal on Monday voted in the country's first post-royal president, Ram Baran Yadav, rejecting a candidate backed by the Maoists, state television said.

Yadav, who was backed by the centrist Nepali Congress party, won 308 out of 590 votes cast in Nepal's constitutional assembly.

Die-hard republican Ramraja Prasad Singh, the candidate backed by the former rebels, won 282 votes, state television said.

Although the presidency is a largely ceremonial position, the development could delay efforts by the Maoists -- who hold the most assembly seats but not a majority -- to form Nepal's first republican government.

The selection of a president, who can accept the resignation of caretaker prime minister Girija Prasad Koirala, is seen as a vital step to ending weeks of political deadlock after the assembly ousted unpopular King Gyanendra and ended the 240-year-old monarchy in May.

But the Maoists had threatened to refuse to form a government if their choice for the presidency was not elected, a move that would plunge the new Himalayan republic into more political turmoil.

The former rebels say that with a hostile president, they will have little chance of implementing key platform pledges like land reform and and will face constant risk of being toppled by rivals.


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BACKSTORY:

Nepal assembly votes in presidential run-off
by Deepesh Shrestha
Mon Jul 21, 3:51 AM ET

Nepal's lawmakers voted Monday in a run-off to elect the country's first president, in a vital step to ending weeks of political deadlock following the abolition of the country's monarchy.

The selection of a first post-royal head of state could bring Nepal's Maoists, who hold the most seats in a recently-elected assembly but do not have a majority, a step closer to finally forming a government.

But the Maoists -- dismayed after a first round of voting Saturday gave a rival candidate the edge -- threatened more turmoil by suggesting they would refuse to form a government if they lose the run-off.

"Most probably we will not join the government if our candidate loses the presidential post," Maoist party chief Prachanda told reporters after he voted Monday.

A loss would mean the rebels, who had earlier been slated to lead the next government, may not have the support to push a prime minister through a similar vote in the assembly.

Even if they manage to get a prime minister elected, the Maoists would have little chance of implementing any of their key pledges, including land reform and integrating their rebel fighters into the national army.

"We don't want to run the government in a state of blockade," said Baburam Bhattarai, the top-ranked Maoist leader after Prachanda, according to a report in the Himalayan Times daily Monday.

All but four of the 594 sitting lawmakers voted in a three-hour secret ballot, with results expected later Monday.

"We have received 590 ballots," chief election commissioner Manohar Prasad Bhattarai told AFP. "Four abstained from the voting."

If the rebels do lose and pull out of the government, Nepal would remain in the political limbo that began when the assembly abolished the 240-year-old Hindu monarchy in a landmark first meeting on May 28.

Interim prime minister Girija Prasad Koirala has since resigned, but with no one in power to accept his resignation, the elderly centrist has lingered on as a weak caretaker.

Political parties have squabbled for weeks over who should get the largely ceremonial but top-ranked post.

On Saturday, the candidate with the biggest number of votes, Ram Baran Yadav, fell 15 ballots short of the 298 needed to win.

Diehard republican Ramraja Prasad Singh, the candidate backed by the Maoists, won 270 votes.

A candidate fielded by Nepal's third main party won no votes, leaving Yadav and Singh to battle it out in the run-off.

Both candidates are ethnic Mahadhesis who hail from the troubled lowland area bordering India known as the Terai, where demands for an autonomous federal state have seen frequent deadly clashes.

"I am confident about my win today as I have gathered support from small leftist and rightist parties who had boycotted the earlier election," Yadav told AFP Monday.

The political infighting among Nepal's three main parties bodes ill for a two-year-old peace process that saw the Maoist rebels lay down their arms after waging a decade-long war for a republic.

The three parties had pledged to work closely together to write a new constitution for Nepal, as well as resolve years of human rights violations by both the army and rebel fighters.

Copyright © 2008 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AFP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Agence France Presse.
Copyright © 2008 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved.
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