Nepal: Nepal’s caretaker Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli resigned on Tuesday as opposition leader Sher Bahadur Deuba prepares to take oath as the new PM following the Supreme Court ruling. Oli said, “Our party follows the orders of the Supreme Court.”
The top court in its judgment ordered President Vidya Devi Bhandari to appoint Deuba as the successor of the now caretaker Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli. Sources in the President’s Office told ANI that preparations for the swearing-in ceremony are underway.
However, the schedule of the program will be announced soon. A total of 146 members of the House of Representatives (HoR) reached the Supreme Court with a writ petition for restoration of the House and the appointment of Sher Bahadur Deuba as the next Prime Minister on May 24.
The petitions at that time included a total of 61 members of the House of Representatives of the Nepali Congress, 49 from the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Centre), 23 from the Madhav Nepal faction of the CPN-UML, 12 from Upendra Yadav. Baburam. Bhattarai of Janata Samajwadi Party and one from Rashtriya Jan Morcha Nepal.
Claiming the position of prime minister back in May, Deuba submitted the signatures of 149 lawmakers to prove he had the majority to lead the new government. Deuba is now trailing by 23 votes, which was earlier led by CPN-UML’s Madhav Nepal. Nepal’s President Bidya Devi Bhandari had refused to allow Deuba to form a new government under Article 76(5) and dissolution of the House.
After Oli failed to secure a vote of confidence on 10 May, Bhandari appointed Oli’s Prime Minister as the leader of the party, which had the largest number of members in the House, on 13 May under Article 76(3) of the Constitution. A week after his appointment, on 20 May, Oli made an abrupt move, recommending that the president invoke Article 76(5) to elect a new prime minister.
When the Prime Minister appointed under Article 76(3) fails in the vote of confidence, it is the President who initiates Article 76(5). However, Oli neither sought a vote of confidence nor resigned, leading to a situation in which a prime minister was asking for the president to be appointed prime minister.
Dissatisfied with the judgement of the Supreme Court, supporters of caretaker Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli on Monday staged a protest against the order to reinstate the dissolved House of Representatives (HoR). A large number of Oli supporters gathered and shouted slogans against the SC’s verdict.
(With Agency Inputs)
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