Kathmandu, May 14
President Bidya Devi Bhandari on Thursday has appointed CPN-UML parliamentary party leader KP Sharma Oli the prime minister of the country as per article 76 (3) of the constitution.
Oli had lost the premiership just three days ago after he failed to secure majority votes in the House of Representatives on Monday. Following that, the head of the state had called parties in the House, where no party has majority votes, to form a coalition with the support of the majority of the lawmakers and stake a claim to the premiership.
Accordingly, the Nepali Congress and the Maoist Centre tried hard but failed as the Janata Samajbadi Party remained divided.
As the last resort, the opposition parties pinned their hopes on the resignation of some 20 lawmakers protesting against Oli in his own UML party so that the number of lawmakers would come down to enable the Congress and the Maoist Centre to achieve the majority mark easily. But, that also could not be possible with Oli getting flexible to address their concerns and withdraw the suspension imposed on the rival leaders, thereby stopping them from resigning.
The constitution has it that if a majority government is not possible in the given time, the president shall appoint the leader of the biggest party in the House the prime minister. But, such a PM is required to obtain a confidence vote in the next 30 days.
Oli is scheduled to take the oath of office and secrecy on Friday.
