Nepal Maoists refuse to form Government

NEPAL: Nepal’s Maoists announced Tuesday they will not form the country’s first post-royal government after the defeat of their candidate for president, plunging the country into a new political crisis.

The former rebels’ decision, seen as a blow to Nepal’s peace process, came one day after rival parties in a constitutional assembly ganged up against the Maoists to elect a president allied to the main centrist party.

“The party’s central committee meeting has decided not to form the government under our leadership,” Maoist spokesman Krishna Bahadur Mahara told AFP.

Elections to the assembly in April gave the Maoists the largest single bloc of seats, but not an outright majority.

The Maoists had insisted their choice of president should be elected and they form a new government.

“After the presidential election, it is certain that we do not have a majority. So we do not have any basis to form the next government,” said Mahara.

Kathmandu, Tuesday, AFP