Nepal government loses confidence vote
Communists were poised to take power again in Nepal Friday after the prime minister lost his own vote of confidence after they had twice failed to topple him.
Nepalese Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba had called Thursday's vote to show his strength after 17 months in power. His narrow loss surprised even his main rival, the Community Party of Nepal.
"We thought he would get through the confidence motion by a narrow margin,'' said communist leader and former prime minister Manmohan Adhikari.
Adhikari's Marxist Party has the largest block of seats (90) in the 205-member parliament. Several lawmakers who withheld support from Deuba Thursday were believed to be ready to ally themselves with Adhikari in a new government.
Deuba survived two no-confidence motions filed last year by the communists with the support of smaller parties.
"I will gracefully accept the parliament's verdict,'' said Deuba who got 101 votes, two short of the
necessary majority.
King Birendra, Nepal's constitutional monarch, Friday gave legislators until Monday evening to form a new government. Deuba had ruled on the strength of 88 seats for his centrist Nepali Congress and backing from two coalition partners, the pro-palace National Democratic Party with 19 seats and the ethnic
Nepal Goodwill Party with two seats.
Thursday five members of the National Democratic Party, one goodwill legislator and two members of Deuba's own Nepali Congress Party abstained from Deuba's confidence vote.
Neither of the Nepali Congress Party rebels, who had complained earlier that Deuba was ignoring calls to reduce the size of his cabinet, emerged Friday to explain their absence during the confidence vote. Deuba loyalists said the rebels hid yesterday in the home of former prime minister Lokendra Bahadur Chand of the National Democratic Party, leading to speculation they had been promised cabinet posts in a possible Chand government.
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