PM Deuba to seek confidence vote today

KATHMANDU : In what appears to be a surprise move, newly-appointed Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba is taking a vote of confidence from the reinstated lower House of parliament on Sunday.

According to Shreedhar Neupane, press aide to Speaker Agni Prasad Sapkota, PM Deuba is scheduled to table the confidence motion in the second meeting of the House of Representatives (HoR) to be held on Sunday.

The first meeting of the restored HoR is being held at 4PM Sunday at the Federal Parliament Building, New Baneshwar.

Meanwhile, government spokesperson and Minister for Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs, Gyanendra Karki registered the trust motion at the Federal Parliament Secretariat.

Deuba, who was appointed the prime minister as per the July 12 mandamus of the Supreme Court, is required to take the trust vote within 30 days of his appointment.

In the 275-member House, where 271 votes will be counted, Deuba must garner at least 136 votes to win parliament’s confidence and remain intact as the executive head for the remaining term of the House. If he fails to win the confidence, the House will get dissolved as per Article 76 (7) and a mid-term poll will be held within six months.

According to the equation in the lower House, the ruling Nepali Congress (NC) has 61 members while its coalition partner, CPN (Maoist Center) has 48 members excluding Speaker Sapkota. Similarly, JSP has 32 members and other two fringe parties have a member each. There is an independent lawmaker — Chhakka Bahadur Lama — as well.  Similarly, the main opposition CPN-UML has 121 members in the lower House.

Deuba, who was appointed the prime minister as per Article 76(5) with the backing of UML’s Madhav Nepal faction and JSP’s Yadav faction, will have to be supported by these factions in order to win the confidence vote.