Lawmakers of UML’s Nepal faction not to resign, to abstain from voting on confidence motion

NL Today

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Kathmandu: Lawmakers of the Madhav Kumar Nepal faction of the CPN-UML have decided not to resign.

According to lawmaker Raj Bahadur Budha, a meeting of the faction held at the Parliament Secretariat in Singha Durbar on Monday morning decided not to put in papers.

The meeting, however, decided to abstain from the meeting of the House of Representatives slated for today.

Stating that giving a vote of confidence to PM K P Oli would weaken democracy, leader Bhim Rawal said that they have decided to be absent at today’s meeting.

Earlier, lawmakers of the faction were mulling to resign en masse in a bid to thwart a vote of confidence for the Prime Minister.

As per the House business on Monday, Speaker Agni Prasad Sapkota will read out a letter received from the President on the HoR session at the beginning of the House session.

Immediately after that, a presidium would be selected to run the House meeting on the proposal of the Speaker.

Likewise, PM Oli will table a proposal seeking a vote of confidence and urge the House to cast vote in the proposal.

After PM’s proposal, the political parties’ representatives will put their opinions.

After the lawmakers’ opinions, the PM will respond to their views and questions raised.

Following the PM’s response, a proposal on voting will advance with the options of ‘Yes’, ‘No’ and ‘Neutral’ and the votes will be divided accordingly.

At present, there are altogether 271 lawmakers in the parliament and the PM should garner the support of 136 lawmakers to gain a majority on his side. The House Speaker will cast votes only if the votes are divided in equal half.