Advertisement

Nepalese prime minister resigns after nine months in office

By Elizabeth Shim
Nepalese Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal, known as Prachanda, announces his resignation during press conference at his office in Kathmandu, Nepal, on Wednesday. Photo by Narendra Shrestha/EPA
Nepalese Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal, known as Prachanda, announces his resignation during press conference at his office in Kathmandu, Nepal, on Wednesday. Photo by Narendra Shrestha/EPA

May 24 (UPI) -- The prime minister of Nepal has resigned Wednesday after only nine months in office.

Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal of the Maoist Party submitted his resignation, a surprise development that is expected to leave a leadership vacuum, weeks before the second round of local elections, Al Jazeera reported.

Advertisement

"I have decided to fulfill the commitment made to the Nepali Congress when I became prime minister," he said, reading from a statement. "I am going to the president to tender my resignation right now."

Nepal has changed governments 25 times in the past 27 years.

Local elections were suspended after 1997 because of a decade-long Maoist uprising that resulted in 16,000 deaths, according to the Times of India.

Nepal is also recovering from earthquakes in 2015 that claimed the lives of 9,000 people.

Dahal said he had reached an agreement with the president of Nepal's congress, Sher Bahadur Deuba, to hand over leadership.

Deuba is to oversee the upcoming provincial and central elections, according to the Times.

Dahal was expected to hold office until elections in June, or the second round of voting.

Advertisement

The first round was held on May 14, the first local elections to take place in Nepal in two decades.

Dahal was serving his second term as prime minister.

In 2008, Dahal quit the position less than a year after he took office, because of a conflict over the reinstatement of an army chief.

In August 2016, he was elected after 363 out of 595 Nepalese lawmakers voted him into office.

Latest Headlines