The audio tape scandal could be a major obstacle for the Maoists to win the seventh round of prime ministerial election on 7 September.
“When will the country get a new PM?” reporters asked the caretaker Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal as he was leaving the CA hall after the failed election. “Ask those who used to claimed they would form the government within two hours after my resignation,” he replied.
“Are you referring to Prachanda?” a reporter asked him. “Yes, that’s right,” he blurted out.
Even though the parliament failed to elect a new PM in the sixth attempt, Nepal did not seem have regrets about its indecisiveness. His party, the UML, has been neutral in all rounds of voting due to which the parliament has not been able to elect a new PM.
The Maoists have not failed completely. In the fifth round, 12 Madhesi leaders crossed the floor and other few small parties voted for the Maoists, ensuring 256 votes- the highest number of votes so far. CPN (Maoist Leninist), which has 9 seats in the CA, was divided. Four of its members revolted and formed a new party. And this time, Madhesi Janadhikar Forum, which has 25 seats, boycotted Sunday’s election, leaving the alliance with other Madhes-based parties.
NC, however, is still where it was before. In fact its relation with the UML, which is an ally in the current coalition government, is growing sour. NC has started blaming UML for holding the country hostage. Several rounds of meetings with caretaker Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal and party chairman Jhalanath Khanal ended without any result. UML has been insisting that both parties should withdraw candidacy and begin a new process for a consensus candidate. NC PM candidate Ram Chandra Poudel said, “The election will continue till one of the candidates wins.”
Maoist chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal had said last week that the sixth round of election would break the current political deadlock. But just two days ahead of the sixth round of election, an audio tape, allegedly of a conversation between the Maoist leader Krishna Bahadur Mahara and a Chinese national, was aired by some television channels in which Mahara seeks financial support worth Rs 500 million to buy the votes required for Dahal to win the election. The allegation surfaced just a day after CPN (ML) accused the Maoists of offering the party Rs 50 million for voting in the election. In the conversation, he says that a minimum of 50 additional members are needed to win the election and requests for Rs 10 million per person.
His calculation looks correct in reference to the Madhesi lawmakers, who stayed neutral in the earlier five rounds of the election. If the Maoists had managed the amount, today’s election could have been different. With 237 seats of their own, the Maoists need only 63 additional seats. The defectors from the CPN (ML) also voted for the Maoists in today’s election. The fringe parties have 57 seats.
But the authenticity of the audio tape is yet to be verified. The allegations have been denied by the Maoists as well as the Chinese embassy in Kathmandu. The government has not yet made formal reactions to the tape.
The NC and the UML have demanded for an independent probe to the controversial tape. Issuing a statement, NC said, “The fact that the Maoists have not been able to disown the tape so far has increased suspicion upon them.”
A meeting of the Maoist office-bearers on Sunday termed the audio tape scandal as a designed conspiracy on the Maoists to disturb the on going PM election and decided to carry out an internal investigation on it.
Since the leaked Shaktikhor tape in May 2009 in which party chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal told PLA combatants that he had deliberately inflated the number of combatants so they could be inducted into the Nepal Army and control it, the Maoists’ attempt to integrate combatants in the army has not been easy.
The leaked audio tape, if verified, will surely make the election win for the Maoists a difficult process.
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Shows how low Nepal’s politics has gotten to. But interesting question is WHO leaked the tape? Who bugged the telephone lines? Who’s behind it?
Prachanda will surpass Robert Bruce.A cat has nine lives, not seven.
Will you please send him to practice rock climbing at Dhabalagiri ?
How childish. Such fabrications as this tape are usually used to confuse really backward and ignorant voters shortly before an election. But Nepal’s politics and media are so bankrupt that it is being used to confuse (really backward and ignorant) legislators shortly before a parliamentary vote. Does anybody imagine this stuff actually works for longer than a few days?
@ Arthur what a shame!! we have ignorant legislators !! Ignorant thinks others are alike him .Thanks for reminding that we have ignorant legislators n we expect them to write the constitution !! wow Nepal (not Makuney) !!!
Further to the above Artur can I put the whole thing in one sentence that our legislators are a commodity which can b sold or purchased and Prachanda the Dalal knows it better than any one else!! God save Nepal!!!
After 7 rounds of elections, we cannot yet elect a PM. What a joke! Its time the Prez gave them one more chance otherwise, the CA needs to be dissolved & fresh elections held or we need to go for President rule. This is sheer mockery of parliamentary process & the will of the people. Whatever happened to the mandate of the people?
Arthur is a western mao-worshipper – it is at present uncertain as to whether the tape is genuine, but he will slavishly deny it regardless.
Everything for maoist is nothin but “RANANITI” n “KARYANITI”. They were never honest n they never will b. This reminds of shaktikhor video by MAHAN prachanda.. Maoists can never b trusted..