Nepal PM Pushpa Kamal Dahal to face vote of confidence on July 12

The latest round of votes of confidence from the Prime Minister, possibly the highest on record, comes after a change in the coalition.

The Prime Minister has sent a letter to the Parliament Secretariat to make preparations for the vote of confidence, which he opted for after his coalition partner, the Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist Leninist (CPN-UML), deserted him and walked out of government earlier this week.

"Prime Minister has decided to take the vote of confidence on July 12, 2024 (28 Ashar, 2081 BS). The Parliament Secretariat has been informed about it. It comes in line with the decision that was made on Thursday evening by the cabinet," Govinda Acharya, Press Advisor to the Prime Minister, confirmed over the phone to ANI.

In the letter, the Prime Minister stated that his move comes in line with Article 100 (2) of the Constitution, which states, "If the political party which the prime minister represents is divided or a political party in coalition government withdraws its support, the prime minister shall table a motion in the House of Representatives for a vote of confidence within thirty days."

Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal is now leading a minority government after his major ally, CPN-UML, formally walked out of the government on July 3. Past midnight on July 2, the UML had allied with the Nepali Congress, changing the political course of the Himalayan nation.

All eight ministers from the UML had tendered their resignations to the Prime Minister after a change in the political course of the Himalayan nation.

In the 275-member house, the Nepali Congress has the highest number of seats (88), the CPN-UML has 79 seats, the RSP has 20 seats and the Maoist Center led by Pushpa Kamal Dahal, has 32 seats.

Taking advantage of the hung parliament, Dahal has been switching sides for months, garnering support from either the Nepali Congress or the CPN-UML. With the latest round of political change, the Maoist Center will be sitting in opposition for the first time within a decade.

With the formal withdrawal of CPN-UML from the government, Dahal was mandated to take a vote of confidence within 30 days, as per the provision stated in Clause 76 of the Constitution of Nepal.

In less than 20 months in power, PM Dahal has already faced 4 votes of confidence. In the first round of votes of confidence after the commencement of the general elections in November 2022, Dahal secured a whopping 99 per cent of the votes. At that time, Dahal set a record by garnering 268 votes out of the 270 existing lawmakers present in the meeting that day.

Back then, Dahal was able to get the whopping majority only because the Nepali Congress, whom Dahal on December end, 2022 had bigoted to become the next Prime Minister stood on his side.

Within 3 months, Dahal dumped CPN-UML to walk out of government again, aligning with the Nepali Congress, and managed to secure a majority in the vote of confidence on March 20. 2023. In the second round of votes of confidence, Dahal got 172 votes out of 262 lawmakers present at the time of voting. Only 89 votes came in against Dahal, while one member abstained from voting.

On March 13, this year, Dahal took his third vote of confidence, where he received a total of 157 votes in favour.

On May 20, Dahal took the vote of confidence amid obstruction by the opposition, where he got 157 votes, which was denounced by the opposition political parties.

The vote of confidence was conducted amidst vocal dissent from key opposition parties, such as the Nepali Congress, Rashtriya Prajatantra Party (RPP), Loktantrik Samajwadi Party, and Janata Samajwadi Party Nepal.

The constitution has mandated a prime minister to cross the mark of 138 votes to regain post and control in the government. Dahal was appointed as the Prime Minister by then President Bidhya Devi Bhandari on December 25, 2022, after he showed the support of 169 lawmakers.

As per the constitutional provision, a prime minister appointed under Article 76(2) needs to secure a vote of confidence from the parliament within 30 days of the appointment. (ANI)