Nepal PM Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ Wins Vote Of Confidence In Parliament

In the House of Representatives, which has 275 members, Prime Minister Prachanda won 172 votes. One legislator abstained, and 89 others voted against him.

Nepal's Prime Minister and Maoist chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal, also known as Prachanda.

Source : File Photo/AFP

Within three months of the formation of the new government, Nepal's Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal 'Prachanda' won the second-floor test and received a confidence vote in parliament on Monday. In the House of Representatives, which has 275 members, Prime Minister Prachanda won 172 votes. One legislator abstained, and 89 others voted against him.

His party, the CPN (Maoist Center), the Nepali Congress, the Rastriya Swatantra Party, the Janata Samajwadi Party, the CPN (Unified Socialist), the Janamat Party, the Loktantrik Samajbadi Party, and the Nagarik Unmukti Party, as well as the independent parliamentarians Prabhu Shah, Amresh Kumar Singh, and Yogendra Mandal, all cast votes for the prime minister.

MPs of CPN-UML and RPP voted a ballot against PM Dahal while Nepal Workers and Peasants’ Party stayed neutral.

Prachanda seemed to have faith that he would easily win a vote of confidence in the House of Representatives on Sunday.

As Rastriya Prajatantra Party and CPN-UML, two parties in the seven-party alliance withdrew support for Prachanda's government, 68-year-old Prachanda sought a confidence vote. They refused to support Prachanda's proposal to back Ramchandra Paudel, the leader of the Nepali Congress, for president.

After all parties, with the exception of the Nepal Workers and Peasants Party and the Rastriya Janamorcha, cast votes in favor of the government, Prachanda, who was sworn in as the country's prime minister in December, passed the first-floor test with ease on January 10 with 268 votes.

The prime ministership can only be held by a person with fifty percent of the seats in the House of Representatives, as stipulated by a constitutional provision. Out of 275 MPs, PM Dahal required at least 138 votes. 

Dahal was elected prime minister on December 25 with the support of parties like CPN-UML. On January 10, he received an overwhelming 268 votes for a vote of confidence. His party, the CPN Maoist Center, the Nepali Congress, the CPN-UML, the Rastriya Samajwadi Party, the Rastriya Prajatantra Party, the Janata Samajwadi Party, the CPN Unified Socialist, the Janamat Party, the Loktantrik Samajbadi Party, and the Nagarik Unmukti Party, in addition to the independent MPs Prabhu Shah, Amresh Kumar Singh Nepal Workers and Peasants' Party and Rastriya Janamorcha did not vote.