Communist leader Oli sworn in as Nepal PM
Nepal’s new Prime Minister Khadga Prasad Sharma Oli has taken the oath of office, pledging to unify the country faced with widespread demonstrations against a new constitution.
Oli was sworn in on Monday, a day after he was elected in the parliament. He was a former deputy prime minister and was the leader of the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist Leninist).
He also appointed the leaders of two parties that opposed the country's new constitution as his deputies in an attempt to resolve the country’s recent crisis. They are Bijaya Gachchedar, the leader of one of the Madhesi ethnic groups, and Kamal Thapa, the head of the royalist Rastriya Prajatantra Party Nepal (RPP-N) that is seeking to turn Nepal into a Hindu state.
The new national constitution was passed in September and is aimed at restructuring Nepal as a federal state made up of seven provinces, and draw a line under a decade-long civil war that ended in 2006.
Madhesis and other ethnic groups in southern Nepal have been protesting against the constitution for weeks, arguing that the constitution will exclude them from power and the new internal borders will slice through Madhesis’ ancestral homeland. The protesters want the states to be larger and exercise more autonomy over local issues.
The demonstrations have caused a severe fuel shortage in the country as a key border checkpoint from India was blockaded and security tightened on the Indian side.
On Sunday, Oli urged political unity in order to end the demonstrations in the south and pledged to deal with the national fuel shortage and accelerate the reconstruction of the quake-hit country.
The Nepali Congress party is anticipated to form the opposition after its candidate Sushil Koirala lost the election on Sunday.
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