Newly appointed Nepal Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal 'Prachanda' secured a vote of confidence in the House of Representatives, with almost unanimous support from both his alliance of seven parties and the opposition.
According to PTI, 'Prachanda' received the support of 268 of the 270 lawmakers who were present in parliament in the vote that took place on Tuesday.
He also set the record for getting the highest number of votes a prime minister has ever received in a vote of confidence in parliament.
'Prachanda' required only 138 votes in the 275-member parliament to continue his term as the prime minister.
Pashupati Shamsher JB Rana, the senior-most member of the House who chaired the session, declared that the motion of the vote of confidence tabled by Prime Minister Prachanda has been endorsed with a majority, reported PTI.
Rana did not vote as she chaired the meeting while four other lawmakers were absent. Two lawmakers voted against Prachanda.
Pushpa Kamal Dahal, the 68-year-old CPN-Maoist Centre leader, was sworn in as the Prime Minister of Nepal for the third time on December 26 last year in a dramatic turn of events.
He walked out of the pre-poll alliance led by the Nepali Congress and joined hands with opposition leader K P Sharma Oli.
In his speech at the lower house earlier, he said that he wanted to take forward politics of consensus, cooperation and mutual trust rather than the politics of negation, disrespect and vengeance as the Prime Minister.
The PM said that he, as the head of the government, wished to give the world a message of national unity in Nepal and pledged to remain dedicated to his duties and responsibilities and give something new to the people.
Who Voted For Whom
All political parties except People's Front Nepal (PFN) and Nepal Workers and Peasants Party (NWPP) - voted in Prachanda's support. Both the PFN and NWPP have one lawmaker each, the report added.
In a surprise move, the Nepali Congress (NC), which is the largest political party in parliament with 89 seats, supported Prachanda during the trust vote.
Prime Minister Prachanda met Nepali Congress chief Sher Bahadur Deuba on Monday and sought his support in parliament. After this, a key meeting of the NC was held on Tuesday afternoon in which it was decided that the party will vote in favour of the trust motion but not join the government, the PTI report mentioned citing a senior NC leader said.
The NC and CPN (Maoist Center) had forged an electoral alliance for the parliamentary election held on November 20.
But after the NC reportedly declined the post of prime minister to Prachanda as agreed before, the Maoist Center forged an alliance with the CPN-UML to form a new government.
In the 275-member House, the NC has 89 lawmakers, while the UML has 79 lawmakers. Similarly, CPN (Maoist Center), CPN (Unified Socialist) and Rashtriya Swatantra Party have 32, 10 and 20 members, respectively. Janamat Party has 6 members, Loktantrik Samajbadi Party 4 and Nagarik Unmukti Party 3 members in the parliament.
NC President Deuba On Supporting Prachanda
Giving reasons for his support to Prachanda, former prime minister and NC president Deuba said his party decided to cast the vote in his favour as it would strengthen democracy and also protect the Constitution.
"We will make our opinion regarding the government’s performance on the basis of merits and demerits," he said.
"We need to maintain cordial and balanced relations with neighbours and friendly countries,” Deuba added, quoted PTI.
Election Of Speaker And Deputy Speaker Next
Now the process of electing the Speaker and Deputy Speaker will get underway. The election to the Speaker is scheduled for January 19.
Nepal’s constitution arrangement makes it necessary to elect the Speaker and Deputy Speaker within 15 days of the first parliamentary meeting.
As per the power-sharing deal reached between the UML and the Maoist Center before Dahal's appointment as the new prime minister, UML will have its candidates elected as the president and speaker of the House of Representatives.
(With PTI Inputs)