KATMANDU, Nepal (AP) — Nepal’s parliament will try again next week to elect a prime minister after 16 failed attempts over the past six months, officials said Thursday.

President Ram Baran Yadav asked for a new round of voting which will be held next Thursday, spokesmen for the president and the parliament said.

To win, a candidate must have the support of more than 50 percent of the 601-seat parliament. However, no party holds a majority in the legislature, and none has been able to form a coalition government.

The lone candidate in recent balloting, Ram Chandra Poudel of the Nepali Congress party, withdrew from the race earlier this month, clearing the way for a fresh attempt to pick a new leader.

Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal resigned last June under pressure from the opposition Maoist party and has been running a caretaker administration since then.

The political stalemate has set back progress on a constitution and a peace process that ended a Maoist insurgency which claimed thousands of lives.