Nepal PM Prachanda resigns

Kathmandu: Nepal Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ on Wednesday resigned after a brief stint of nine months, honouring a power sharing understanding reached between his party and the ruling partner Nepali Congress.

Prachanda, 62, announced his resignation while addressing the nation in a live telecast. It was his second stint as the Prime Minister.

The prime minister was to address the parliament on Tuesday and announce his resignation, but it was postponed as the speaker adjourned the House after the main opposition CPN-UML’s lawmakers obstructed the House meeting, protesting against the government’s decision to increase the number of local units in Tarai districts.

As leaders from ruling and opposition parties could not develop a consensus on resuming House meeting despite holding several rounds of talks, the speaker postponed the parliament meeting.

He was elected as the 39th prime minister of Nepal after forging alliance with the Nepali Congress on August 3, 2016.

Prachanda, the Chairman of CPN (Maoist Centre), had reached an understanding with Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba that he would step down as Prime Minister and hand over the leadership to him after nine months.

The pact was to run the government on a rotational basis until elections to the parliament are held in February 2018.

Prachanda was to hold office till local polls are held and remaining two elections – provincial and central – were to be conducted under Deuba.

 But the choice of a new leader could take several days as politicians are required to spend a week to agree on a consensus candidate – a highly unlikely scenario – before lawmakers are asked to elect a successor in a parliament where no party commands an absolute majority.

“The resignation creates confusion about the polls because the focus will now be more on government making than elections,” said Guna Raj Luintel, editor of the Nagarik daily.

Millions of Nepalese on May 14 voted in the country’s first local-level polls in two decades.

Local-level elections could not be held after 1997 largely as a result of the decade-long Maoist insurgency that claimed more than 16,000 lives in Nepal.

The elections should be held in every five years but due to the political instability, they were halted since May 1997.

The Himalayan nation has been plagued by wrangling over a new constitution approved in 2015 as minority ethnic Madhesis protested that they had been deprived of their say. (Agencies)