Nepal PM ‘Prachanda’ loses vote of confidence in Parliament; Oli set to be new PM

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.

NC president Deuba and CPN-UML chairman Oli inked a 7-point deal on Monday to form a new coalition toppling Prachanda-led government.

According to the agreement, Oli and Deuba will share the premiership during the remaining period of the House of Representatives; in the first phase Oli will become the Prime Minister for one and a half years and then, Deuba will take the seat for the rest of the period.

Prachanda, whose party had 32 seats in the HoR, was elected the Prime Minister for the third time on December 25, 2022, with the backing of CPN-UML.

Prachanda was elected the Prime Minister as per Article 76 Clause 2 of the Constitution of Nepal, which has a provision for electing a Prime Minister with the support of two or more parties.

As the HoR session began in the early afternoon, embattled Prachanda sharply criticised the Nepali Congress and the CPN-UML for striking an alliance “out of fear” rather than shared principles and accused them of pushing the nation toward regression.

Prachanda voiced concerns about potential regression and autocracy, asserting that the NC and the CPN-UML had joined forces as good governance began to take root in the country.