PM Oli likely to win vote to confidence today as all parties except NC, Naya Shakti to support him
KATHMANDU, March 11: Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli is likely to win vote of confidence on Sunday as all the parties except the main opposition Nepali Congress and Naya Shakti Party are supporting him.
Prime Minister Oli is scheduled to face vote of confidence today at the parliament, three weeks after he was appointed for the top executive job. Oli was appointed as the 41st prime minister of Nepal on February 15.
Since all the parties, CPN (Maoist Center), Rastriya Janata Party Nepal (RJPN), Federal Socialist Forum Nepal (FSFN), Rastriya Janamorcha, Nepal Workers and Peasant Party (NWPP) including independent member Chhakka Bahadur Lama, are supporting Oli at the parliament, the Prime Minister is expected to get 210 votes in his favor. Opposition Nepali Congress, who has 63 seats and Naya Shakti Party who has 1 seat, will remain in the opposition. Naya Shakti Coordinator Dr Baburam Bhattarai will miss the voting as he is away on a foreign trip and will land in Kathmandu late evening. The two parties, with 64 seats will hardly make 23 percent of the total in the House.
Of the total 274 eligible voters—RJPN’s Resham Chaudhary will not be eligible to vote as he is in custody in charge of involvement in 2015 Tikapur incident and is yet to be sworn-in–UML has 121 lawmakers, Maoist Center has 53, RJPN and FSFN has 16 each, Janamorcha, RPP and NWPP has one each lawmaker in the parliament.
Article 76 (4) of the Constitution makes it mandatory for the prime minister to obtain a vote of confidence from the House of Representatives no later than thirty days after the date of appointment. The parliament is holding the vote of confidence at 3:00 pm today.