In Nepal, the parliament failed to elect a new Prime Minister for the record 6th time today. Both the contesting candidates – Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda of the Unified CPN (Maoist) and Ram Chandra Poudel of the Nepali Congress could not secure the simple majority required to get elected in the sixth round of polling held this afternoon.Announcing the election result, Speaker of the Parliament Subash Nemwang said the Maoist candidate Prachanda polled 240 out of a total of 504 votes cast, while his Nepali Congress rival Ram Chandra Poudel won 122 votes. Both the candidates could not get elected as they failed to obtain the simple majority. The Business Advisory Committee of Parliament will decide the date for the 7th round of voting. AIR Kathmandu Correspondent reports that neither of the two candidates secured the required majority as CPN (UML) and four Tarai based parties along with smaller parties in the parliament abstained from voting process. According to parliamentary regulations, the voting process will continue until one of the two candidates gets elected.For the record sixth time, Nepal's parliament has failed to elect a new Prime Minister that has strained peace process and writing of a new constitution. The Unified CPN(Maoist) has decided to intensify consultations with other political parties and leaders of civil society to find a way out of the current political deadlock.CPN (UML) has been insisting on building consensus among all parties and demanded withdrawal of both the contesting candidates from the electoral fray to pave way for forming a national consensus government. Nepali Congress however said it will not pull out of the election process. It is to be seen what strategy the major parties would adopt before the next round of voting to form a new government and end the political deadlock.