Nepal's Maoist party called Sunday for the formation of a new power-sharing government after parliament failed for the eighth time to elect a new prime minister. The former rebels abstained from Sunday's vote, the latest in a series of attempts to elect a new leader for the troubled country, which has been without a government for almost three months.
Their candidate, party chairman Pushpa Kama Dahal, earlier withdrew from the running to be prime minister to pave the way for fresh talks on forming a national consensus government. Nepal has been without a government since June 30, when former prime minister Madhav Kumar Nepal stood down under intense pressure from the Maoists.
Since then, the parties have been unable to agree on the shape of the new administration and a series of votes in the 601-member parliament have proved inconclusive, with none of the candidates securing an overall majority.
"It is clear that we cannot elect a new prime minister in this way. We should now look to form a national unity government," said Maoist vice chairman Baburam Bhattarai after the vote. The Maoists, who fought a decade-long civil war against the state before transforming themselves into a political party and winning elections in 2008, hold the largest number of seats in parliament, but not enough to govern alone.
Dahal, a former warlord who still goes by his nom de guerre, Prachanda ("the fierce one"), was the front-runner in earlier votes, but failed to win the simple majority he needed to form a new government.
His only rival, Ram Chandra Poudel, chairman of the second-largest party in parliament, the centrist Nepali Congress, stood uncontested on Sunday but took only 116 votes. The next vote is due to be held on September 30.