KATHMANDU — Nepal’s new Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal pledged on Wednesday to unite a country hit by deadly protests over constitutional changes after lawmakers elected the Maoist leader and former guerrilla to head a new government.
Dahal, better known by his nom de guerre Prachanda or “the fierce one,” led a decade-long Maoist insurgency before transforming the rebel movement into a political party after a 2006 peace deal.
He is now tasked with rebuilding the country after a devastating earthquake and resolving simmering unrest over the new national charter adopted last September.
“I pledge that I will unite everyone in the country,” he said in an address to parliament before the vote.
“I have a responsibility to solve this problem. I feel that I have been put forward as a candidate to work as a bridge between (communities),” he said.
Dahal, head of the Maoist party, ran unopposed and secured 363 out of 573 votes to become the Himalayan nation’s premier for a second time.
He has served as prime minister once before, after the Maoists won elections in 2008, but only lasted nine months in office before resigning.
Dahal, whose Maoists are the third-largest force in parliament, pulled out of a coalition led by K.P. Sharma Oli — the former prime minister — three weeks ago and secured the support of the biggest party, the Nepali Congress.
He also won the backing of the United Democratic Madhesi Front (UDMF) — an alliance of protesting parties — paving the way for warmer ties between the new government and demonstrators from the Madhesi ethnic minority.
Oli, who heads the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist Leninist), faced fierce criticism over his handling of a months-long border blockade by demonstrators who say the constitution left them marginalized.
More than 50 people died in clashes between police and protesters demanding revisions to federal state borders set out in the new charter.
Commentators say Dahal is likely to be more sympathetic to protesters’ concerns following the Madhesi parties’ decision to back his candidacy.
“Prachanda is likely to address the long-pending issues raised by Madheshi parties... but he will have to bring (his former coalition partner) UML on board in order to amend the constitution,” said Guna Raj Luitel, editor of Nepali daily Nagarik.
Any changes to the constitution must be passed in parliament by a two-thirds majority, making Oli’s UML, which holds 182 out of 595 seats, an important source of support.
The new charter, the first drawn up by elected representatives, was meant to bolster Nepal’s transformation from a Hindu monarchy to a democratic republic after decades of political instability.
But continuing discussions between the government and protesters have failed to break the deadlock.
Prachanda will also have to mend ties with powerful neighbor India, which made no secret of its disapproval of the constitution.
Kathmandu in turn accused New Delhi of supporting the border blockade, which sparked crippling shortages of vital supplies across landlocked Nepal.
Meanwhile, some four million Nepalis are still living in tents or huts after an earthquake that killed nearly 9,000 people in 2015.
Stung by criticism over delays, the government has vowed to kickstart the rebuilding of schools and hospitals and speed up distribution of a $2,000 payout to homeless households.
So far, some 42,000 families have received the first $500 installment of the payout, fewer than eight percent of those left homeless by the disaster.
Nepalis frustrated by the slow pace of reconstruction said they had few hopes for the new government.
“So many who lost their homes in the earthquake are still in shelters. But (politicians) are always busy playing power games,” said Nabin Shrestha, who drives a three-wheeler for a living.
Prachanda will be the eighth prime minister to lead Nepal since 2008, when he became premier for the first time and overthrew a 240-year-old feudal monarchy.
