APSN | Nepal to form national unity government

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Nepal to form national unity government

Agence France Presse - May 3, 2012

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Nepal's Maoist Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai will disband his cabinet and form a new national unity government in a bid to end the country's political deadlock, an aide said Thursday.

The Maoists currently rule with support from fringe parties but have agreed to dissolve the coalition administration and offer portfolios to the main opposition groups, the Nepali Congress (NC) and United Marxist Leninist (UML).

"We have always advocated for the formation of a national unity government. But the NC and the UML didn't support us and we had to form a coalition government without them," the premier's spokesman Ram Rijan Yadav told AFP.

"As per (the) agreement, the prime minister will dissolve the cabinet and will form another cabinet. We will try our best to include all the parties represented in the parliament," he said.

"Prime Minister Bhattarai is holding talks with opposition leaders and he will dissolve the cabinet only after the portfolios for the upcoming ministers have been decided," he said.

Maoist rebels fought the government in a bloody conflict from 1996-2006 that left 16,000 dead before the insurgency turned to mainstream politics and swept to power in elections in 2008.

The parliament has a May 27 deadline to agree on a new constitution but the process has been delayed by disagreements over how to divide the country into federal states and which form of governance it should adopt.

Bhattarai is widely expected to remain in office until the constitution is in place before allowing the Nepali Congress to lead a new government.

He was made prime minister in August last year after his predecessor from the UML, Jhalanath Khanal, failed to make headway over the constitution and completing the peace process.