A meeting of party whips on Tuesday agreed to postpone the election for the post of prime minister till next week. Although the political parties are yet to reach an agreement for a consensus candidate for the fifth round of voting, they agreed on the UCPN (Maoist) proposal to postpone the prime ministerial election scheduled for Wednesday.

The Maoists proposed to delay the election until next week, in part because of the death of party CA member Ram Kumari Yadav on Saturday. Wednesday’s parliamentary session will meet briefly to pass a condolence proposal over her death. The Business Advisory Committee’s meeting, to be held immediately afterwards, will officially announce the postponement and the next date for the election. This has given political parties more time for political negotiations at a time when the key parties, the UML and Madhesi alliance, have been reiterating their neutral stance for the fifth round of voting.

The UML has been urging the Maoists and NC to withdraw their candidacies to pave the way for a consensus candidate. For that the current parliamentary regulations have to be amended. However, both the parties have refused to withdraw from the fray. Instead they have intensified negotiations with other parties in order to secure a simple majority in parliament to form a government. The UML’s parliamentary delegation, on Monday, therefore decided to remain neutral until a consensus candidate is selected.