Nepalese PM resigns ahead of final round of local polls

By Deepak Adhikari

KATHMANDU, Nepal (AA) - Nepal’s Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal Wednesday resigned from his office, weeks before the final round of local elections.

Dahal, popularly known by his nom de guerre Prachanda, who led a decade-long civil war that ended in 2006, was elevated to the premiership in August last year after hammering out a power-sharing agreement with Nepali Congress, the country’s largest party.

He stepped down as part of an agreement he made with Sher Bahadur Deuba, the 70-year-old president of Nepali Congress, who is poised to succeed him.

In his half-hour nationally televised speech before heading off to the presidential office to submit his resignation, Dahal enlisted the mid-May local polls, held for the first time in 20 years, as one of his top achievements.

Over 70 percent of voters turned out in the polls, in which more than 10,000 candidates fought for 280 positions in municipalities and village councils.

Critics, however, said that Dahal’s resignation would lead to power vacuum in the country ruled by fragile coalition governments.

Dahal’s administration was third in just three years and his would-be successor, Deuba, would likely rule the country only for the next nine months.

Nepal promulgated a post-war constitution amid protests in the southern plains in September 2015. Under the charter, new dispensation is tasked with holding next round of local polls and elections for the parliament.

In the first round of local polls, whose final results are expected this week, Dahal’s party came third, with the Unified Marxist-Leninist and Nepali Congress, first and second respectively.

“The first round of polls has been a grand success. I hope the second phase will be equally successful,” the 62-year-old former Maoist commander said.

But with a coalition of the regional parties threatening to boycott the polls, his successor will have hard time following Dahal’s footsteps.

The remaining phase of the polls would be held on June 14.