23 February, Kathmandu: Leaders of political parties are still deciding on the presidential candidate. The Maoist Center, leading party of the government, is preparing to hold separate discussions with Nepali Congress, United Socialist Party, and Janata Samajwadi Party Nepal (JSP) today and hold a joint meeting of the old five-party power alliance this evening.
Yesterday there was a discussion between the Nepali Congress and the Maoist Center. After the discussion, the leaders said that they have reached an agreement on the dissolution of the old power alliance. According to the conversation held in the same meeting, preparations have been made to discuss today between Maoist-JSP and Maoist-Unified Socialists.
The meeting will focus on selecting the presidential candidate. Nominations are being registered on February 28th for the presidential election to be held on 9th March.
The five-party alliance broke up on 25th December due to the dispute over who will be the Prime Minister between Congress Chairman Sher Bahadur Deuba and Maoist Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal. After the UML agreed to make Dahal the prime minister, a new coalition was formed, in which the Rashtriya Swatantra Party, RPP, Janata Samajwadi, Janmat, and JSP also participated.
