After 16 attempts, Nepal's feuding parliament still has not been able to elect a new prime minister and only a recent last-minute emergency decree by the president allowed the government to access new funds.
It has been more than four years since a Maoist insurgency was brought to an end by a peace treaty contingent on a new constitution and army - neither of which has been achieved.
Replacing Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal, who resigned in June following pressure from his opponents but has remained in a caretaker role, has proven impossible.
To elect a successor requires the support of more than half the 601-member parliament but the party with the largest electoral backing, the Unified Communist Party of Nepal (or "Maoists") has been unable to secure a coalition partner to win a majority on any issue.
Since June 2010, the Himalayan nation has not had a fully functioning government.
For several months it survived on emergency funds, limiting the scope of the government's services and development work.
Only an 11th hour emergency decree in November 2010 by the president allowed the country to access new funds and resume payments to civil servants.
There is a deadlock in Nepal now. UNMIN is to leave Nepal on January 15, 2011. There is certainly a high degree of awareness about the forthcoming deadlines in the country – both the deadline of UNMIN’s departure and the deadline of the constitution-drafting next May.
Source: United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs - Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN), and UNMIN, Dezember 2011
