PM to take vote of confidence after presidential election

Published On: March 1, 2023 08:17 AM NPT By: Republica | @RepublicaNepal

KATHMANDU, March 1: Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal is preparing to take a vote of confidence after the presidential election scheduled for March 9, according to a cabinet minister.

Minister for Information and Communication Technology Rekha Sharma, who is also the government’s spokesperson, said the process to take a vote of confidence was deferred as the prime minister is busy preparing for the presidential election.

Addressing a press conference organized at the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology to publicize the decisions of cabinet meeting on Tuesday, Minister Sharma said the government is preparing to take a vote of confidence after some of the coalition partners decided to quit the government.

Nepal’s political landscape has seen another round of turmoil as ministers from the CPN-UML resigned en masse on Monday, following in the footsteps of Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) ministers a day ago.

This has put Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal under constitutional obligation to seek a vote of confidence in parliament in less than two months after assuming his office. The latest development comes after the CPN (Maoist Center) broke its alliance with the UML and endorsed Nepali Congress (NC) candidate for the upcoming presidential election.

A secretariat meeting of the UML on Monday morning decided to withdraw from the cabinet after Foreign Minister Bimala Rai Paudyal was asked not to travel to Geneva to attend the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) meeting at the eleventh hour. All the seven ministers representing the UML tendered their resignation en masse to Prime Minister Dahal on Monday afternoon.

Earlier, four RPP ministers had tendered resignation to Prime Minister Dahal after the Maoist Center decided to endorse NC candidate Ram Chandra Poudel as the new president. The RPP, which was a part of the ruling alliance, decided to withdraw its support to the government alleging that the Maoist Center did not honor the agreement with the UML to support the latter’s candidate in the presidential election.