Nepal parliament meeting postponed over no-trust motion

The no-trust motion against Nepal Prime Minister K P Oli could not be taken up today as ruling and opposition parties differed over the issue of initiating discussion on the vote tabled by the opposition.
Nepali Congress and CPN-Maoist Centre have been exerting pressure on the government that the no confidence motion registered in parliament earlier this week should be put up for discussion.
They have also demanded that Oli should resign to clear the way for formation of a new government.
However, the ruling coalition has been insisting that the Parliament should first endorse two remaining bills related to the fiscal budget before having a discussion on the no-trust motion.

As her efforts to bring the two opposing alliances to an agreement failed, Parliament Speaker Onsari Bharti has re- scheduled the Parliament meeting tomorrow, according to sources at the Parliament secretariat.
"After Nepali Congress proposed to go for a package deal on the issue the major parties have agreed to hold discussion on the issue to sort out differences before the Parliament meeting starts tomorrow," they said.

Oli, who became prime minister last October heading Nepal's eighth government in the past 10 years, has been facing a no-trust motion after the Maoists withdrew support from the coalition government last week.

The no-trust motion in the 601-member Constituent Assembly was backed by 183 NC parliamentarians, 70 from CPN-MC and three from CPN-United. The three parties have a combined strength of 292 in Parliament.
Oli's Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist Leninist) currently has 175 elected seats in parliament, far fewer than the 299 needed to win a vote of confidence.
The six Madhesi parties, whose combined strength is 50, have also announced to support the no-trust motion.