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Nepali PM steps down after losing majority

July 24, 2016

Nepal's prime minister has resigned after just nine months in office, throwing the Himalayan nation into political uncertainty. Premier Oli took the step minutes before a no-confidence vote that he was expected to lose.

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Nepal Premier Prasad Sharma Oli
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/N. Shrestha

Prime Minister Khadga Prasad Oli was forced to quit after rival politicians pulled out of his embattled ruling coalition, accusing him of reneging on a power-sharing agreement.

"I have decided to open the road to elect a new prime minister in this parliament and presented my resignation to the president," Oli said in a nationally televised speech before lawmakers on Sunday.

The no-confidence motion against his government was lodged last week by coalition partner the Maoist party and the main opposition Nepali Congress.

In his two-hour speech, the 64-year-old premier said he was "broken-hearted." He also warned their actions would lead to further instability in the impoverished country, which is still struggling to rebuild after a devastating earthquake that killed nearly 9,000 people last year.

"The opposition parties hatched a conspiracy for narrow interests, and I am stunned by that," he said.

Maoist party chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal is now expected to try and form a coalition government with the help of the Nepali Congress and other parties.

Anti-government protesters clash with police in Nepal
Thousands of people from Nepal's Madhesi minority stage protests against the country's constitution in KathmanduImage: picture alliance/dpa/N. Shrestha

Nine months in power

In September, Nepal adopted a new constitution that aimed to cement peace and expedite the country's transition to a democratic republic after decades of unrest. Oli became prime minister in October after gaining a two-thirds majority with the support of the Maoists.

Since then, however, he has come under fire for failing to address the concerns of Nepal's ethnic Madheshi community. The minority argues that the seven federal states established under the new constitution have borders that cut through their ancestral homeland in the south of the country.

The Maoists also accuse Oli's government of failing to implement an earlier deal to withdraw war cases from Nepal's courts and offer amnesties to Maoist cadres facing trials for wartime crimes.

The Maoists are former communist rebels who waged a decade-long insurgency that ended with a peace deal in 2006. More than 15,000 people were killed and tens of thousands displaced during the violence.

nm/jlw (AFP, AP, Reuters, dpa)