Recent News:Defence Minister says security forces will be deployed to halt PLA's recruitment drive

Defence Minister Bidhya Bhandari has said that the government would deploy security forces to stop the Maoist's People's Liberation Army (PLA) from undertaking fresh recruitment as per its recent announcement in response to the opening of vacancies in various positions by Nepal Army (NA) in its infantry division.

"The fresh recruitment drive announced by the Maoist's PLA is a direct violation of the peace agreement and country's law. As political and legal problems will arise if the Maoists starts taking in new recruits, the government will be forced to deploy security forces in all seven PLA cantonments," Minister Bhandari told select journalists at her ministerial quarter in Hariharbhawan on Thursday.

Defending the NA's decision to open vacancies for 3,464 personnel in various positions, she said that the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) doesn't prohibit the Army to recruit new personnel within the ceiling of 95,000, the total strength when the agreement was signed in 2006.

In response to the Army's decision to start regular recruitment, PLA on Tuesday announced vacancy for 12,000 personnel.

Minister Bhandari said the announcement by PLA to carryout fresh recruitment at a time when the Maoists are facing pressures from all sides to transform itself into a "civilian party" is being taken "very seriously" by the government.

Recent News: Two new Maoist CA members sworn in ahead of PM election

Two newly nominated Constituent Assembly members from the Unified CPN (Maoist), Ram Kumar Paswan and Farmud Nadaf were sworn just ahead of the fourth round of the prime ministerial election Friday afternoon.

CA chairman Subas Nemwang administering oath of office and secrecy...

CA chairman Subas Nemwang administered oath of office and secretary to them at the CA building.

On Thursday, the Election Commission had approved their nomination in the two vacant seats.

The UCPN (M) nominated Pawan and Nadaf as its new CA members a day after the Supreme Court gave its verdict against a writ petition filed by Matrika Yadav and Jagat Yadav, the two former UCPN (M) lawmakers, challenging the decision of the Business Advisory Committee of the parliament to scrap their CA membership.

Current news:Fourth round of voting also fails to elect new prime minister as both Dahal and Poudel get rejected

The fourth round of election for a prime minister has also become fruitless as both Maoist chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Nepali Congress vice chairman Ram Chandra Poudel failed to secure clear majority in the run-off held at the legislature parliament in CA Hall, Naya Baneshwor on Friday.

CA chairperson Subas Chandra Nemwang had tabled a proposal for election of Maoist chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal as the new prime minister first.

After the voting by lawmakers on the proposal, Dahal failed to even secure a simple majority. 213 lawmakers voted in favor of Dahal while 99 voted against him. Some 156 lawmakers had remained neutral.

Immediately after that the CA chairperson put up NC vice chairman Poudel's name for voting. As expected, he also failed to garner a simple majority with 122 lawmakers voting for him while 245 voted against him. 194 lawmakers remained neutral.

Altogether 561 lawmakers participated during the voting for Poudel while 468 lawmakers of the 601 member legislature parliament participated during the voting for Dahal.

Earlier 12 lawmakers, who arrived late at the Constituent Assembly (CA) Hall, were not allowed to participate in the voting.

Meanwhile, the fifth round of voting for a prime minister will take place on August 18.