August 10, 2008	Sunday	Sha’aban 7, 1429

KATHMANDU, Aug 9: Nepal’s former Maoist rebels and mainstream parties failed to meet a deadline to form a new government, leaving the Himalayan nation in political limbo, an official said on Saturday.

The Maoists, who won the most seats in April assembly elections, blamed Nepal’s “traditional style of dirty politics” for the failure to form a government.

“We’ve missed the deadline for presenting the president with a consensus for government formation due to the petty interests of some party leaders,” senior Maoist leader Chandra Prakash Gajurel said.

On Tuesday, Ram Baran Yadav, the first president of republican Nepal, extended by three days the deadline he had given for the parties to reach agreement on a Maoist-led new government.

There was no immediate reaction from the president’s office to the parties’ failure to constitute a government.

The constituent assembly declared Nepal a republic in late May, abolishing the 240-year-old Hindu monarchy, but the parties have not been able to form an administration since.

Minendra Rijal, a senior leader of the Maoists’ biggest rival, the Nepali Congress, said more work needed to be done to work out policies and assign ministerial portfolios before a government could be formed.

“The situation is very fluid. I am hopeful but not assured that we can find a way out of the current deadlock,” said Rijal.

In April, the former rebels became Nepal’s biggest party after polls to elect a 601-member constitution-writing body, but the ultra-leftists do not hold a majority and have struggled to reach an agreement with their rivals.

The ultra-leftists ended their bloody, decade-long uprising after a peace accord with the government in 2006, but have faced hurdles in the transition from feared guerilla outfit to mainstream political actors.—AFP