Kathmandu, Nepal, January 31, 2023:Though the Election Commission (EC) has on Monday announced March 9 as the date for the election of new President and March 17 for electing Vice President, competition among the political parties for the coveted posts is likely to further heat up.
The ruling head CPN (Maoist Center) has been stating that all the political parties including the main opposition Nepali Congress will be taken into confidence to select the common candidate for the post of president. However, no shape is taken yet at about the presidential candidate, thanks to the bargaining mood the Maoist Center.
The leaders of the two largest parties in the HoR, the Nepali Congress and the CPN-UML, have already announced that they will field their candidates for the post of president with the expectation that the third-largest party, the CPN (Maoist Centre), would support to their candidate to elect a new president.
The UML has a claim that the Maoist Centre had already agreed to cede the presidency to a UML nominee in exchange for the latter’s backing for Dahal’s prime ministerial bid. However, Maoist Chairman and Prime Minister Dahal now has publicly denounced the claim saying that no such deal was made with the UML.
Prime Minister Dahal has become loyal to the Nepali Congress after it gave him a trust vote in parliament on January 10. After that, he has been saying that he would try his best to elect the next President, based on consensus.
