KATHMANDU — Nepal’s Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli resigned on Sunday, nine months after coming to power, minutes before parliament was to vote on a no confidence motion he was likely to lose.
Oli, 64, was forced to quit after allies of his multiparty coalition deserted the government accusing him of not honoring power sharing deals that helped install him as prime minister in October.
“I have already submitted my resignation to the President when I met her before coming to the house,” said Oli in a speech in parliament just ahead of the scheduled no confidence vote.
His move came after two more parties abandoned Nepal’s ruling coalition ahead of a no-confidence vote.
Oli’s ruling coalition lacked a majority in parliament and his resignation is likely to trigger fresh uncertainty in the impoverished, quake-hit nation that has suffered years of political turmoil.
The embattled premier was left reeling after former rebel Maoists quit his coalition two weeks ago.
After debate on the motion gathered pace in parliament on Saturday, the Madhesi Janadhikar Forum-Democratic (MJF-D) and Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP), also pulled their support.
“We are a party that believes in democracy and we felt it was not right to support him after the largest coalition partner withdrew,” he said.
Oli’s Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist Leninist) holds 175 elected seats in parliament, far fewer than the 299 needed to win the vote.
The Maoists joined the government last October, weeks after Nepal adopted a divisive new national constitution.
Cracks began to appear in the coalition two months ago when they threatened to topple Oli.
Oli survived that attempt by drawing up an 11th-hour deal with Maoist chief, Pushpa Kamal Dahal, better known by his nom-de-guerre Prachanda.
But Dahal later pulled out of the coalition, citing the government’s failure to implement the agreement to withdraw civil war cases from Nepal’s courts and offer amnesties to people accused of abuses during the decade-long Maoist insurgency, which ended in 2006.
Dahal, who is favorite to replace Oli, on Friday accused the premier of being an egocentric who refuses to listen.
Since becoming premier, Oli has faced fierce criticism over his handling of protests against the charter, which triggered a months-long border blockade in southern Nepal by demonstrators from the Madhesi ethnic minority.
More than 50 people died in clashes between police and protesters, who said the constitution left them politically marginalized.
The new constitution, the first drawn up by elected representatives, was meant to cement peace and bolster Nepal’s transformation to a democratic republic after decades of political instability.
But ongoing discussions between the government and protesters over the charter have failed to yield agreement.
A massive earthquake that ripped through Nepal last April killed nearly 9,000 people.
