Nepal Prime Minister ‘Prachanda’ to seek vote of confidence on Wednesday

KATHMANDU: Nepal Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ is scheduled to seek a vote of confidence from Parliament on Wednesday, days after the Maoist leader dumped the Nepali Congress and forged a new alliance with the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist) party.

Prachanda, a former guerilla leader belonging to the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Centre), the third largest party in the House of Representatives (HoR), on Sunday sent a letter to the Parliament Secretariat, indicating that he has severed ties with the Nepali Congress.

According to constitutional provisions, a prime minister has to take a vote of confidence after an ally withdraws support to the ruling coalition. Prachanda is required to prove his majority after he lost the support of the previous ally, the Nepali Congress, the largest party in the HoR.

Prachanda has now forged a new alliance with the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist) (CPN-UML) led by former prime minister K P Oli, who was regarded as a top critic of the Maoist leader.

The new government requires at least 138 votes in the 275-member House of Representatives to win the vote of trust. Wednesday's vote of confidence will be the third such by Prachanda, 69, since he assumed office in December 2022.

The Prachanda-led coalition government currently enjoys the support of 150 members in the lower house of Parliament.

The second-largest party in the HoR, CPN-UML, led by former premier KP Sharma Oli, has 76 seats, while the third-largest party, CPN-Maoist Centre, has 32 seats. Similarly, the Rastriya Swatantra Party, the Janata Samajwadi Party and the CPN-Unified Socialist have 20, 12 and 10 seats, respectively.

Out of a total of 78 lawmakers of the CPN-UML in the lower house, one of the members has passed away, while another is suspended.

The CPN-Maoist Centre has issued a whip to all of its members of the HoR to be present in the lower house on March 13.

This is the third time that Prime Minister Prachanda is seeking a vote of confidence in the House in less than one-and-a-half-year.

Prachanda became the prime minister for the third term with the support of the Nepali Congress on December 25, 2022.

Last year, Prachanda faced a floor test after the Oli-led CPN-UML withdrew its support to the Prachanda-led government following a rift over backing the main opposition party’s candidate for the presidential poll.

In the 2017 election, Prachanda and Oli merged their parties and secured a comfortable majority. Oli became the prime minister, but their partnership ended halfway following differences between them.

The Nepali Congress party has asked its members to vote against the Prachanda government.

Meanwhile, the five political parties in the ruling alliance on Tuesday inked a seven-point agreement, pledging to support the Prachanda-led government.

A meeting of the parties that took place at the Prime Minister's official residence in Baluwatar decided to promote mutual cooperation to make the government delivery further "effective" and "advance" towards good governance, social justice and prosperity.

The meeting attended by the top leadership of the five parties also agreed to promptly conclude the transitional justice issue, the remaining task of the peace process and matters concerning the establishment of sustainable peace based on consensus.

They also agreed to prepare a common minimum programme among the parties in the government and to come up with government policies and programmes capable of promoting national interests and consolidating democracy.

An understanding has been reached among the political parties to strengthen national independence, sovereignty, and territorial integrity as well as to move ahead towards the path of political stability for socialism-oriented socio-economic development.

The five parties agreed to move ahead to fulfil the people's aspirations of good governance, development and social justice as well as putting the issues of national interest and concerns in priority.

Meanwhile, President Ramchandra Paudel on Tuesday administered an oath of office and secrecy to the newly-elected Chairman of the National Assembly Narayan Prasad Dahal.

Dahal, a common candidate of the ruling alliance, was elected chair of the upper house securing 39 votes in the 59-strong House.

Dahal, the younger brother of Prime Minister Prachanda, was nominated to the National Assembly in 2022 by President Bidya Devi Bhandari on the recommendation of the then Sher Bahadur Deuba government. He, however, has a long political history.

The upper house of the Parliament has 59 members, but presently it has 58 members.