Overwhelming Mandate

After securing a vote of confidence with a two-thirds majority in the House of Representatives (HoR) on Sunday, Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli-led coalition government is poised to carry out sweeping constitutional and economic reforms in the country. PM Oli, also the chairman of CPN-UML, bagged 188 votes out of the total 263 members present in the HoR meeting. Oli, who was appointed PM on July 14, also made public a seven-point agreement on the basis of which the Nepali Congress and the UML formed the new alliance, replacing the CPN-Maoist Centre-led coalition. In their accord, the two largest parties have pledged to constitute a national consensus government under Article 76 (2) with the involvement of other political parties to protect the national interests, maintain good governance through corruption control, speed up development works and ensure political stability.