Former revolutionary sworn in as Nepal’s Prime Minister
Kathmandu: A year and a half after his first stint as Prime Minister abruptly ended, Khadga Prasad Sharma Oli returned last Thursday to the seat of government in the capital.
Oli, 65, was sworn in at the Shital Niwas as Nepal’s 38th PM having secured nearly a two-thirds majority in the landmark parliamentary elections held late last year.
He enjoys an unprecedented mandate to rule Nepal under a two-year-old post-war constitution.
Last October, the former communist revolutionary who spent 14 years in jail engineered a surprise left alliance that brought him an election victory.
However, the chairman of the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist), the largest party in the Parliament known by its acronym UML, faces a host of challenges in delivering his election promise of political stability and economic growth.
Political analyst Jhalak Subedi told Al Jazeera the inauguration marked a significant step towards Nepal’s republican journey after the autocratic monarchy was abolished in 2008.
“In the last 70 years, we have gone through a lot of political changes … from monarchy to federal republic. For the first time in our history, a body elected by people was able to deliver a constitution. This is the result of many political struggles in Nepal,” he said.