Nepalese Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba resigned yesterday after just eight months in office, making way for a new communist government to take power two months after landmark elections in the Himalayan nation
K.P. Sharma Oli, the leader of Nepal’s largest communist party, was named prime minister.
He is to head the first government elected under a new constitution that cements Nepal’s transformation from Hindu monarchy to a federal republic 11 years after the end of a brutal Maoist insurgency.
Photo: AP
The communist leader was expected to take the oath of office later in the day, presidential secretary Bhesh Raj Adhikari said.
“My main responsibility was to hold the three phases of elections for the implementation of the new constitution,” Deuba said in a televised address to the country. “My responsibility has been fulfilled so I have decided to resign.”
An alliance of Oli’s main communist party and the former Maoist rebels trounced Deuba’s Nepali Congress party in last year’s polls.
The historic elections in December last year were the first under the country’s new post-war constitution, which sets out a sweeping overhaul of the political system, devolving significant power from the center to the seven provinces.
The communist alliance won a landslide victory, but the handover of power was delayed by disagreements over how the new election rules in the constitution should be implemented.
The long delay has dampened the optimism that accompanied the polls, when many voters cast their ballots hoping a new government would bring much-needed stability and development.
Nepal has cycled through 11 prime ministers since the civil war ended in 2006, allowing corruption to flourish and growth stagnate.
Rules under the new constitution make it harder to oust the prime minister, raising hopes that the next government could last a full five-year term.
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