Nepal PM ‘Prachanda’ loses vote of confidence in Parliament

Kathmandu: Nepal Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ on Friday lost a vote of confidence in Parliament after coalition partner CPN-UML withdrew its support to him, a development that will lead to the formation of a new government led by ex-premier K P Sharma Oli.

Prachanda received only 63 votes in the 275-member House of Representatives (HoR) and there were 194 votes against the motion. At least 138 votes are needed to win the vote of trust.

A total of 258 HoR members participated in the voting while one member abstained.

Prachanda, 69, chairman of the Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist Centre (CPN-MC), had survived four trust votes since he assumed the prime minister’s post on December 25, 2022.

He faced the same predicament yet another time because former prime minister Oli-led Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist Leninist (CPN-UML) withdrew support from the Prachanda-led government last week after inking a power-sharing deal with the largest party in the House – the Nepali Congress (NC).

Earlier, Speaker of the HoR Dev Raj Ghimire put Prachanda’s Vote of Trust for voting according to Article 100 Clause 2 of the Constitution. After voting was completed, he announced that the Vote of Trust proposed by Prime Minister Prachanda was defeated with a majority vote.

Speaker Ghimire will now inform President Ram Chandra Paudel, who in turn, will invite two or more political parties to stake a claim for the new government according to Article 76 Clause 2 of the Constitution.

This paves the way for the NC and the CPN-UML to form a new coalition government.

The NC has 89 seats in the HoR, while CPN-UML has 78. Their combined strength of 167 is much more than the 138 required for a majority in the lower house.

Nepali Congress (NC) President Sher Bahadur Deuba has already endorsed Oli as the next prime minister.

Nepal President Ram Chandra Paudel on Friday called on political parties to stake claim to form the new government with a Sunday evening deadline to prove the majority, hours after ‘Prachanda’ failed to secure a trust vote in Parliament.