Nepal's main political parties are struggling to break a deadlock over how to form a new government in the young republic, party officials said Monday.
The former communist rebels, formally called the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), won the largest number of seats for a constitution-drafting assembly in April but failed to get a clear majority and will have to form a coalition government.
The Maoists are seeking both the position of prime minister and the newly created position of president. But the idea has been rejected by the two other main political parties, the Nepali Congress and the Communist Party of Nepal (United Marxist-Leninist), who are only willing to give the ex-rebels one of the two positions.
"How can the Maoists, who do not have clear majority, claim the position of both the prime minister and the president? It is because of the Maoist's rigid position we have not been able to reach any agreement," Iswor Pokhrel, a senior leader of the Communist Party of Nepal (United Marxist-Leninist), said Monday.
The Constituent Assembly met for the first time last week, when the parties agreed to abolish the monarchy and gave deposed King Gyanendra a deadline for leaving the palace.
But the parties have had a harder time agreeing on how to form the new government.
Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala, who belongs to the Nepali Congress party, has already said the new government will be led by the Maoists but he has not stepped down or given indication of when he will resign.
The Maoists, meanwhile, have threatened to hold street protests if they are not allowed to immediately form a government and control both key positions.
"It would be mockery of democracy for a party who lost in the election to claim the position of president," Maoist chairman Prachanda said Sunday. Prachanda uses only one name.
The deadlock has led to political uncertainty in Nepal, which only two years ago saw the Maoists end a decade-old insurgency that killed more than 13,000 people.
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