Newly Elected Nepal’s PM Dahal To Face Vote Of Confidence On 10 Jan

Nepal's newly-appointed Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ has decided to hold a vote of confidence in Parliament on 10 January, according to an official.

On 26 December, the 68-year-old CPN-Maoist Centre leader was sworn in as Prime Minister for the third time after abruptly leaving the pre-election alliance led by the Nepali Congress and joining forces with opposition leader KP Sharma Oli.

Prachanda requested on Monday that the parliament secretariat prepare the agenda for the vote of confidence in parliament on 10 January.

“The Prime Minister has sent a letter to include the subject of a vote of confidence on the agenda of the Parliament on 10 January,” said Rojnath Pandey, the Parliament Secretariat's spokesperson.

A person who becomes Prime Minister is required by the constitution to call a vote of confidence within one month of taking office.

After the country went to the polls on 20 November, President Bidhya Devi Bhandari called the new Parliament's first session on 9 January.

This will be the first Parliament session since the appointment of “Prachanda” as the country's new prime minister.

Prachanda was appointed as the country's new prime minister after submitting a letter to President Bhandari indicating the support of 169 members of the House of Representatives, which has a total of 275 members.

He needs 138 votes in the House to secure a clear majority. Seven parties have backed him, including Oli's Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist-Leninist (CPN-UML) and the newly formed Rashtriya Swatantra Party (RSP).

The Himalayan nation adopted a multiparty democracy based on the constitutional monarchy in 2008. The right to free expression, equality, and other civil and political rights enshrined in the 1990 constitution, but did not fully translate into actions.