KATHMANDU, Jul 13 (NNN-XINHUA) – Nepali President, Ram Chandra Poudel, last night, called on political parties commanding a majority in the lower house, to form a new coalition government by tomorrow afternoon, hours after Prime Minister, Pushpa Kamal Dahal, lost a vote of trust.
“As a letter has been received from the House of Representatives that, the prime minister failed the vote of confidence, the president has called a member of the lower house commanding a majority, with the support of two or more than two parties, to claim for the government, as per Article 76 (2) of the Constitution, by 5.00 o’clock in the afternoon on Sunday (tomorrow),” Shailaja Regmi Bhattarai, spokesperson for the President’s Office, said in a statement.
No single party won a majority of seats in the lower house, in the general election held in Nov.
The Nepali Congress and the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist Leninist), the largest two in the chamber, agreed to join hands for a new coalition, on the night of Jul 1, and the latter quit and withdrew support to the coalition government led by Dahal, two days later.
Dahal opted for a vote of trust in the lower house, the fifth since he became head of a coalition government in late Dec, 2022, after he rejected calls for his resignation, to pave the way for a new coalition.– NNN-XINHUA
