Nepal to vote for 17th time for PM

Nepal's parliament will try again next week to elect a prime minister after 16 failed attempts.

Nepal’s parliament will try again next week to elect a prime minister after 16 failed attempts over the past six months,officials said on Thursday.

President Ram Baran Yadav asked for a new round of voting which will be held next Thursday,spokesmen for the president and the parliament said.

To win,a candidate must have the support of more than 50 percent of the 601-seat parliament. However,no party holds a majority in the legislature,and none has been able to form a coalition government.

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The lone candidate in recent balloting,Ram Chandra Poudel of the Nepali Congress party,withdrew from the race earlier this month,clearing the way for a fresh attempt to pick a new leader.

Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal resigned last June under pressure from the opposition Maoist party and has been running a caretaker administration since then.

The political stalemate has set back progress on a constitution and a peace process that ended a Maoist insurgency which claimed thousands of lives.