Nepal’s long-running political crisis deepens after the country’s prime minister no longer can stay in power after he lost a vote of confidence in the parliament.
Nepal’s prime minister KP Sharma Oli is now forced to resign after his attempts to get a vote of confidence failed and got only 93 votes out of the required 136.
Oli, also the chairperson of the ruling CPN-UML party, lost the vote of confidence following months of instability within his party.
KP Oli’s government is now constitutionally a caretaker government. President Vidya Devi Bhandari is expected to call for the parties to form a new government with a majority.
If the parties fail to form a government within 35 days of the prime minister’s resignation, they can recommend the dissolution of the parliament.
Prime Minister warned the members of the House of Representatives, the country’s parliament, that voting against him will destabilize the parliament. He said, “Give me the Vote of Confidence, if you want to save the Parliament,” signaling that he is going to dissolve the parliament, sooner or later.
The Prime Minister’s call for the dissolution of the parliament would then push the country for the elections. However, people fear that the Prime Minister may use the ongoing pandemic to declare a state of emergency in the country which could result in delayed elections.
KP Sharma Oli is a pivotal figure in Nepali Politics. His controversial personality has been efficient in creating in-party unrest inside the current ruling CPN-UML and previously ruling Nepal Communist Party – NCP (CPN).
KP Oli had become the prime minister of a nearly two-thirds majority government with the support of a left alliance between CPN-Maoist Center and CPN-Unified Marxist Leninist. The two-party later merged to become the NCP (CPN).
Amid the unrest in the ruling party, Nepal’s prime minister dissolved the country’s parliament which later denied him the vote of confidence after being reinstated by the court deeming the dissolution unconstitutional.
NCP (CPN) was then dissolved by the Supreme Court saying its unification was incomplete as the name of the party coincided with another party with the name Nepal Communist Party (CPN).
After the dissolution of the unification, the members of the KP Oli faction and the opposition Madhav Nepal faction came to the CPN (UML) while the opposition faction led by Puspa Kamal Dahal went to the CPN-Maoist Center.
Amid the lack of support from his former ally Maoist Center and a faction inside his party led by Madhav Kumar Nepal, Oli called the parliament for the vote of confidence which he lost 93-124.
28 Members of the parallel faction were not present in the vote while the 15 members of the National People’s Party voted to be neutral.
