KATHMANDU, Nepal — Nepal’s parliament held elections for a new president on Thursday, as the Himalayan nation faces increasing political instability with a fragile coalition government that has been in power for only a few months, AP reported.
The election of the president, a figurehead with not much political power, has triggered feuds among partners in the ruling alliance headed by Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal, who took office in December.
Dahal is backing Ram Chandra Poudel of the opposition Nepali Congress party, a move that angered his main coalition partner, the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist Leninist), which wanted its own candidate to be president. The party has since pulled out of the coalition.
