国际英语新闻：New prime minister elected in Nepal

KATHMANDU, Feb. 3 (Xinhua) -- Nepali Parliament has finally succeeded to elect the nation's 34th prime minister, ending the seven-month-long deadlock in the prime ministerial elections.

Jhalanath Khanal, Chairman of the third largest party, Communist Party of Nepal -(Unified Marxist Leninist) (CPN-UML), became the new prime minister of the nation.

Constituent Assembly (CA) Chairman Subas Nembang announced that the majority is in the Khanal's side with the majority of the votes.

As per the rule, the prime ministerial candidate has to get simple majority votes -- 301 votes out of 599 lawmakers in the parliament.

Nepal's newly elected Prime Minister Jhalanath Khanal leaves the parliament house in Kathmandu, capital of Nepal, Feb. 3, 2011. The Constituent Assembly of Nepal elected Thursday the Communist Party of Nepal - Unified Marxist Leninist (CPN-UML) Chairman Jhalanath Khanal as the 34th prime minister of the country.

Khanal, who was supported by the Unified Communist Party of Nepal- Maoist, received 368 votes from the total 597 present CA members.

He defeated two other candidates Nepali Congress Parliamentary Party leader Ram Chandra Poudel who got 122 votes and United Madhesi Democratic Front Chairman Bijay Kumar Gachhadar who got 67 votes in Thursday's election.

CA Chairman Nembang congratulated the new prime minister of the country, who will bear the responsibility of contentious issues of the nation that are constitution drafting, peace process and army integration.

Nepal has been running under a caretaker government for more than seven months after former Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal announced his resignation on June 30, 2010.

After the resignation of Nepal, the legislature-Parliament had held 16 rounds of parliamentary voting, but still failed to pick a new prime minister. The futile election had ran without any seriousness in the party leaders.

On Jan. 25, a proposal passed by the legislature-Parliament amended its regulations for the prime ministerial election to give it a concrete end within three rounds of election.