Preparations were made to table vote of no confidence against Nepal PM Oli, reveals Gyawali

Dec 22, 2020

Kathmandu [Nepal], December 22 : Pradeep Kumar Gyawali, Minister for Foreign Affairs and the newly appointed spokesperson of the Nepal Communist Party, revealed that a vote of no-confidence was planned against Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli.
Answering questions from reporters about the Central Committee Meeting called by Oli at Baluwatar, Gyawali said that the signatures of lawmakers from the ruling Nepal Communist Party were used to prepare a draft to table the no-confidence motion against Oli.
"What was the unnecessary work that the government tried to do which prompted a rush early in the morning? Use the signatures collected for preparing a draft of vote of no confidence against Prime Minister," said Gyawali on Tuesday.
Sources confirmed to ANI that the vote of no confidence against Prime Minister Oli was registered on early Sunday morning, about an hour after Oli convened an emergency cabinet meeting making recommendations to dissolve the parliament.
Lawmakers from the Nepal Communist Party which included some of the ministers on board the Oli government have also signed the document which was later leaked to the media on Sunday evening.
On December 20, President Bidhya Devi Bhandari later ratified the proposal floated by Oli dissolving the parliament. Oli has also presented the dates for holding elections in April end and early May in 2021.
Elected via General Assembly Election of 2017, Nepal Communist Party, an amalgamation of former communist forces of the Himalayan Nation had a majority of 116 seats in parliament. It had run short of four seats to gain a two-thirds majority in the lower house but was able to form the government with 64 per cent of the votes in favour of Oli.
Briefing central committee members, Oli on Tuesday directed everyone to prepare for the forthcoming election when he expects to get a popular vote of 5 million and a complete majority of two-third in the parliament.
"In the election, we should be able to secure at least 5 million popular votes, that too from proportional representation. We secured a total of 116 seats in parliament-- a joint effort of two parties, we won 116 seats that time and now we need to add 4 more into previous numbers and win total of 120 seats," said Oli in his address to Central Committee members on Tuesday.
The Dahal-Nepal and KP Oli faction in the ruling party on Tuesday convened two separate meetings of the Central Working Committee.
The Dahal-Nepal faction, which had a majority on basis of the number of Central Committee Members expelled Oli from the post of chairman, while taking disciplinary action.
The faction led by Oli has claimed that a working committee meeting that isn't attended by the party secretary cannot be considered legitimate.
At a meeting held in the early hours of Tuesday at Baluwatar, the Oli-led faction also expanded the number of Central Working Committee members adding 556 members to the existing 446.
The meeting also decided to hold the party's unity convention from November 18, 2021. Earlier the party's convention was scheduled from April 7 to 12, 2021.