Nepali Congress decides to pull out of PM race if 4th poll ends in standoff

The Nepali Congress (NC) office bearers on Tuesday decided to stay away from the prime ministerial runoff if the fresh voting election also ends in a standoff.

The Legislature-Parliament is set to hold the election for the fourth time on Aug. 6 as none of the candidates succeeded in garnering a majority support in the third round of election Monday.

In the meeting here Tuesday morning, the NC assessed the prime ministerial election and concluded that the majority-oriented system has but left a wrong impression among the people.

Talking to the reporters after the meeting, NC spokesperson Arjun Narsingh KC said the NC saw a need of coming off the standstill and moving ahead in a new way.

According to him, the NC is open about an alternative. "But that needs to be discussed within the party," he said.

"Nepali Congress doesn't want to see the country stranded in some void," he said.

The NC office bearers decided to take an initiative to hold consultation with the Communist Party Nepal-Unified Marxist Leninist (CPN-UML) and the Madhes-based parties in order to seek their support for NC Vice-Chairman Ram Chandra Paudel in the fourth round election.

The CPM-UML withdrew its candidate from the race in the first round of election and has been staying neutral.

After caretaker Prime Minister M.K. Nepal resigned on June 30, the Legislature-Parliament of Nepal had held three-round election to elect new prime minister.

Source: Xinhua