Nepal’s PM Prachanda wins trust vote after joining hands with KP Oli’s party
Nepal’s Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ won a vote of confidence in Parliament on Wednesday as the country struggled to maintain political stability amid shifting alliances.
Prachanda, 69, a former guerrilla leader of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Centre) – the third largest party in the House of Representatives (HoR) – got 157 votes in the 275-member House of Representatives (HoR).
A total of 268 MPs were present during voting in the Parliament House located in Naya Baneshwar, Kathmandu. 110 votes were cast against him, while one MLA did not participate in the voting. Prachanda needed 138 votes to win the trust vote.
Speaker Dev Raj Ghimire announced, “The Prime Minister has won the trust vote.”
The vote comes days after the Maoist leader quit the Nepali Congress and formed a new alliance with the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist–Leninist).
This is the third time that Prachanda has sought trust vote in the House in less than one and a half years.
According to constitutional provisions, the Prime Minister has to seek a trust vote after any ally party withdraws support from the ruling coalition. Prachanda had to prove his majority after losing the support of previous ally, Nepali Congress, which is the largest party in HoR.
Prachanda’s new political alliance is with the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist–Leninist) (CPN-UML) led by former Prime Minister KP Oli, who was considered a top critic of the Maoist leader.
Prachanda became Prime Minister for the third time on December 25, 2022.
Last year, Prachanda faced a test of strength when Oli-led CPN-UML withdrew its support to the Prachanda-led government following differences over supporting the main opposition party’s candidate for the presidential election. .
In the 2017 elections, Prachanda and Oli merged their parties and won a comfortable majority. Oli became the Prime Minister, but their partnership ended midway due to differences between them.