Senior Maoist party leader Baburam Bhattarai was elected as Nepal’s prime minister on Sunday in the latest attempt to form a stable government after extended political uncertainty. The outgoing prime minister Jhalanath Khanal took the job only in February when the role had been vacant for seven months in a power struggle following the ten-year civil war that ended in 2006.
Bhattarai, the vice chairman of Maoist party, won the vote after securing the support of the Samyukta Loktantrik Madhesi Marcha, a loose alliance of five regional parties from the country’s southern plains. “Baburam Bhattarai secured 340 of the 574 votes cast, giving him a majority,” Speaker Subash Chandra Nemwang told parliament. Maoist rebels fought the central government in a bloody conflict during which 16,000 died before turning to mainstream politics and winning elections in 2008.
