Sher Bahadur Deuba of the Nepali Congress Party was elected Nepal’s 40th prime minister today after opposition parties agreed to end the week-long deadlock in the parliament. They were protesting a dispute over failure to conduct local elections in some provinces. The veteran politician has elected to the office of the prime minister for the fourth time now, serving as the PM from 1995 to 1997, from 2001 to 2002, and from 2004 to 2005 before. The then-monarch of the Himalayan state had sacked Deuba in 2005, citing his failure to conduct parliamentary elections as also his failure to bring the Maoists, now led by the enigmatic Prachanda, to the negotiating table.
Called Shri Sher Bahadur Deuba to congratulate him on being elected the Prime Minister of Nepal.
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) June 6, 2017
Constitutionally, a member of parliament should have a simple majority in the House to be elected as the head of state, which translated into 297 votes in the 593 member house. With the ruling NC-CPN(Maoist Centre) alliance already holding 287 seats, all the coalition needed was the support of 10 more members. They had the support of the smaller Madhesi parties – the CPN-Maoist Centre, Madhesi Peoples Rights Forum-Democratic, Rastriya Prajatantra Party and other small parties agreed to poll in favour of Mr Deuba, and are also expected to join the cabinet when Mr.Deuba expands it later.
Departing Prime Minister Prachanda of the CPN (Maoist Centre) proposed Mr Deuba’s name for the post of PM which was supported by Nepali Congress leader Ram Chandra Poudel at the Parliament Secretariat. Mr.Prachanda resigned this month, honouring a power-sharing agreement between the two biggest parties.
Earlier today, the CPN-UML opposition front decided to end the obstruction of the house after the ruling coalition pledged to hold local elections in the remaining four provinces on June 28 and the provincial and parliamentary elections by January 2018. This means that responsibility for holding Nepal’s next elections would fall on Mr.Deuba and his ministers.
“We decided to end the obstruction in parliament after the ruling parties agreed to commit in the House to hold elections in the remaining four provinces and not repeating any irregularities,” said former UML chairman Jhal Nath Khanal after the meeting between the government and the Opposition.
