Kathmandu (dpa) - Maoist leader Baburam Bhattarai was sworn in Monday as Nepal's 35th prime minister after bickering saw its political parties fail last week to meet a deadline to form a unity government and repeatedly miss deadlines to draft a new constitution.
The vice chairman of the Unified Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist was selected prime minister Sunday after the fourth-largest bloc in parliament, the Madhes-based parties from the central plains, and smaller parties voted for him, giving him the required two-third majority to win.
Bhattarai, 57, received 340 votes in the 601-seat parliament.
As the fifth elected communist leader of the country, Bhattarai replaced Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist-Leninist leader Jhalanath Khanal, who stepped down August 14 to make way for a unity government.
President Ram Baran Yadav administered the oath of office and secrecy at the presidential palace.
Bijaya Kumar Gachhadar, chairman of the Madhesi People's Rights Forum-Democratic, was sworn in as the deputy prime minister.
Bhattarai was expected to expand his cabinet Tuesday. The cabinet was likely to have a significant number of members of the Madhes-based parties. The Maoists agreed to give them some major portfolios in the cabinet in exchange for their support in Sunday's vote.
Political commentators said taking leadership of the government days ahead of the latest deadline to write a draft constitution is a tall order, which comes on Wednesday.
The new constitution is part of Nepal's peace process, which ended a decade of civil war between the Maoists and then-government and brought the rebels from the battlefield into politics.
Political factions are deadlocked over several issues, including the fate of former guerrillas. The 19,000 Maoist combatants have been confined to seven camps across Nepal since the end of the conflict.
dpa pt ls
Author: Pratibha Tuladhar
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