Parliament voting on PM Oli’s confidence motion today

On Monday afternoon, Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli will take a vote of confidence from the House of Representatives (HoR).President Bidya Devi Bhandari called a special House session for 1 p.m. on Monday, citing Prime Minister Oli's belief that it is appropriate to seek parliament's confidence in him under Article 100(1) of the constitution.

PM Oli is attempting to win a plurality vote two months after the Supreme Court abolished the former Nepal Communist Party (NCP) and reinstated the CPN-UML and CPN-Maoist (Maoist Center). In response to a writ petition filed by Rishi Ram Kattel, the Supreme Court declared the merger of the UML and the Maoist Center to form the NCP unconstitutional. Previously, in 2017, the two parties formed an alliance.

The Maoist party, on the other hand, did not withdraw its support for the Oli-led government until May 4. The party's Standing Committee formally voted to withdraw its support for the administration.

According to the Federal Parliament Secretariat, plans have been made so that legislators who have been afflicted with the coronavirus disease will still vote in today's confidence vote.

Ruling CPN-UML has also issued a whip to its lawmakers to mandatorily attend today’s meeting and vote in favor of PM Oli. The party has a total of 121 lawmakers in the lower house of parliament. Oli required at least 136 to win the House’s trust. The lawmakers close to the senior leaders duo Madhav Kumar Nepal and Jhala Nath Khanal, however, are reportedly in mood of resigning en masse unless their demands are not addressed. The faction has been demanding scrap the decisions taken on March 12 and revive the party mechanism as it was on May 16, 2018.

The main opposition Nepali Congress has formally decided to vote against the government in today’s confidence motion. The party has a total of 61 lawmakers in the lower house of parliament.

The Maoist party, which has 49 lawmakers, will also vote against Oli as it recently withdrew its support given to the government. The party is also expediting its efforts for the formation of new alliance to succeed the Oli government.

The Janata Samajbadi Party (JSP), on the other hand, opted not to whip its lawmakers. A conference of the party's office-bearers on Sunday voted to give its lawmakers more leeway. The JSP is represented in parliament by 32 members.A meeting of parliament’s Business Advisory held on Sunday decided to accomplish all the procedures on confidence motion on Monday itself.