Political coalition changes in Nepal ahead of Presidential poll, nominations to be filed today

The political coalition in Nepal has changed within two months after its formation before the Presidential election.

The Communist Party of Nepal- Unified Marxist Leninist (CPN-UML), Rastriya Prajatantra Party and the Rastriya Swatantra Party was forced to move out after Maoist Center formed an alliance with the Nepali Congress and Unified Socialist.

The decision to change the political course of the Himalayan Nation after the general election of November last year comes ahead of the Presidential election slated for next month.

A successive and final round of meetings held at Nepal Prime Minister's residence Baluwatar which concluded late on Friday evening decided to form a new alliance of eight political parties, including the Nepali Congress, Maoist Centre and Unified Socialist.

"Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal 'Prachanda' called the meeting of the eightparties including those out of the government. The only agenda discussed in themeeting was President's election," Prakash Jwala, a leader of the CPN-Unified Socialisttoldover the phone.

In the meeting, Nepal PM Dahal proposed to support the Nepali Congress nominee for the President for being the largest political party in the federal parliament.

"From today (Friday) onwards, a new political journey begins. Let's take it ahead; let's be united for the country's prosperity, national independence, sovereignty and people's livelihood. We can go together on power sharing as well," Jwala quoted PM Dahal as he briefed about the meeting.

Eight parties, including Nepali Congress, Maoist Centre, CPN (Unified Socialist), Janata Samajbadi Party (JSP), Loktantrik Samajbadi Party, Janamat Party, Rashtriya Janamorcha and Nagarik Unmukti Party attended the meeting on Friday.

The Election Commission has scheduled the nomination of the President for February 25 and the election on March 9.

The meeting of the top leaders of NC, Maoist Centre, JSP and CPN (US) on Friday morning had agreed to restore the previous alliance- the alliance before that of the November 20 election.

Although the CPN UML had been insisting that the UML nominee would be the President asper the agreement made on December 25, Nepal's PM and Maoist Centre Chairman Dahal was forging national consensus in the election of the President.

The weightage of the vote cast each by members of the Nepal Federal Parliament and Provincial assemblies will be counted on the basis of the electoral college. A vote cast by a member of the Nepal federal parliament, including both upper and lower houses, will be considered to have a weight of 79 votes whereas a vote cast by a member of a provincial assembly will be considered to have a weight of 48 votes.

It means, there will be a total of 52,786 electoral votes in the Electoral College. The weight of the vote has been decided according to the ratio of lawmakers to the total population of the country as calculated in the 2011 census as the final report of the latest 2021 population census is not yet out.

A person who secures more than 50 per cent of the total votes in the voting in Nepal presidential election shall be elected as the president.

( With inputs from ANI )