Nepal

Political deadlock over country leadership

Article published on the 2008-06-21 Latest update 2008-06-21 16:03 TU

Nepal's Maoist leader Prachanda, after the elections in April 2008
(Photo: Reuters)

Nepal's fledgling government is in trouble over political leadership. The Maoists, the former rebels, walked out of the government on Friday. They want the Nepali Congress party premier and interim president to step down.

The political parties in Nepal are trying to find a way out of a deadlock after Maoists walked out of the new government on Friday. There's dispute over political leadership of Nepal's new Republic.

The pressure is on interim president and prime minister, Girija Prasad Koirala, of the Nepali Congress Party which came third in the elections. The Maoists and now the UML, the Unified Marxist-Leninist party, want Koirala to resign so that they can run the country in the two-year period during the writing of a new constitution.

Many people in Nepal, see Koirala as the architect of the peace plan which halted the Maoists' ten year rebellion and brought an end to the 240-year-old monarchy in Nepal.