Nepal Prime Minister KP Oli Loses Vote of Confidence in Parliament

Nepal Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli on Monday, 10 May, lost a confidence vote in Parliament.

(Photo: The Quint)

Nepal Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli on Monday, 10 May, lost a confidence vote in the country’s parliament.

The Nepalese PM faced a floor test in Parliament on Monday and
needed 136 votes in the 275-member House of Representatives to win the vote of confidence.

However, reports said that 93 lawmakers voted in favour of PM Oli while 124 of them voted against him, and 15 abstained.

Following the political development, the former PM held a Cabinet meeting on Monday.

Meanwhile, Nepal President Bidya Devi Bhandari has called upon all parties to stake claim to form a majority government.

According to Rashtrapati Bhavan, she has asked party leaders to “come forward with the name of candidates for the post of Prime Minister by 9 pm on Thursday,” ANI reported.

The Office of the President has also stated that upon the Cabinet’s recommendation, the President has prorogued the special session of Lower House, effective starting midnight on Monday, reported ANI.

The no-confidence votes marks the first unsuccessful vote of confidence sought by a government elected under the new constitution put into effect in September 2015.

Just hours ahead of voting, the two opposition parties, Nepali Congress (NC) and Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Centre), had announced that they will not vote for Oli, reported news agency IANS.

According to the report, a section of his party lawmakers had decided not to attend a special session of Parliament on Monday.

Oli’s Political Decline

Oli’s political career has been strained ever since he unilaterally dissolved the House last December and appealed for snap polls. The House was later reinstated by the country’s Supreme Court, which overturned the PM’s decision.

Following this, Nepal's ruling Communist Party had split into two factions.

In January, the leader of the rival faction of the ruling party, Pushpa Kamal Dahal aka ‘Prachanda,’ ousted Oli as a general member of the party. On 4 March, the Prachanda faction wrote to the Parliament Secretariat, urging it not to recognise Oli as the Parliamentary party leader.

‘Prachanda’ went on to demand the resignation of a Oli from the post, saying that he would face a no-confidence motion in the Parliament if he failed to do so.

The two factions led by Oli and Prachanda had been staking claim to the Nepal Communist Party, with both saying they have a majority of members in the Central Committee, as well as in the Parliamentary Party.

The revolt in Oli’s Nepal Communist Party — Unified Marxist Leninist, as well as the concord between the two main oppositions resulted in Oli’s government having to step down from office 22 months ahead of the end of its five-year term.

The infighting between the two factions of the Nepal Communist Party had turned bitter after both sides removed top leaders from each other's factions, thus splitting the party politically.

(With inputs from ANI and IANS.)