Nepal's parliament has failed to elect a new Prime Minister even in the eighth round of voting held this afternoon, as the lone Nepali Congress candidate Ram Chandran Poudel failed to get the required simple majority. Announcing the election result, parliament Speaker Subhash Nemwang said, out of total 189 lawmakers who took part in the voting process, Poudel secured 116 votes in his favour, far below the 300 votes required for his election. AIR Kathmandu Correspondent reports that out of the current 599 members in parliament, more than 400 members including the Unified CPN(Maoist), CPN(UML), Tarai parties and over a dozen smaller parties abstained from voting. Earlier, the Maoist lawmaker and party Vice-President Dr. Baburam Bhattarai tabled a proposal in the House withdrawing the party candidate Chairman Prachanda from the Prime Minister's electoral race, leaving Nepali Congress candidate Ram Chandra Poudel as the lone contestant. The next round of voting will be held on 30th of this month.