As the parties fail to form a new government on the basis of consensus, a Parliament meeting on Friday will initiate the process to elect the new prime minister. President Ram Baran Yadav will formally write to the Parliament Secretariat, asking it to initiate the voting process.

A weeklong deadline served by the President to install a unity government expired on Thursday without any progress. According to Parlia-ment Secretariat co-spokesman Sudarshan Kuinkel, Speaker Subas Nembang, after reading out the letter from President Yadav, will instruct the secretariat general secretary to publish the PM election timetable.

The secretariat plans to hold the prime minister’s election on Sunday. Parties would get until Saturday to file candidacy. So far, only CPN-UML Chair KP Oli has announced his candidacy for the post.

If there are only two candidates, the country will get the new PM by Sunday evening. The UCPN (Maoist) has not expressed its intention to field its own candidate while the Nepali Congress remains sharply divided over it.

There has been no concrete power-sharing agreement so far. UML Chairman Oli is asking the NC and other fringe parties to support his bid. The Madhes-based parties are outside the parliamentary process. A candidate that garners 299 votes in the 597-member House will be elected the country’s chief executive.