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Nepal parties agree to pass budget, avert shutdown
Associated Press - November 16, 2010
Binaj Gurubacharya, Katmandu, Nepal – Nepal's main political parties agreed Tuesday to approve the annual budget despite a long-running political stalemate, averting a government shutdown in the Himalayan nation.
Leaders of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), Nepali Congress, and Communist Party of Nepal (United Marxist Leninist) met Tuesday and agreed to back the proposed budget, which the government plans to present to parliament later this week. The three parties control more than two-thirds of the seats in parliament.
The budget was supposed to be approved by mid-July but a political stalemate in which parliament has been unable to agree on a new prime minister has delayed the proceedings. An interim budget that allowed the government to function expires Tuesday.
Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal and his government resigned in June. Since then, parliament has tried repeatedly to elect a new prime minister without success. Nepal and his Cabinet are running a caretaker administration, attending to little more than the most urgent functions of government.
The prime minister is elected by a majority vote of parliament. No party has more than 50 percent of the seats and attempts to forge a coalition government have failed so far.
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