KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) — The leader of Nepal’s main communist party, Khadga Prasad Oli, was appointed the new prime minister of the Himalayan nation on Sunday after the fall of a previous coalition government.
A statement from the president’s office said Oli will take the oath on Monday.
Oli, a seasoned politician and three-time prime minister, will lead a coalition government consisting of his Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist Leninist) and the Nepali Congress Party, the two largest parties in Nepal.
The last government led by Pushpa Kamal Dahal collapsed on Friday after Oli’s party, which was part of the coalition, withdrew its support for joining the new partnership.
Oli would have to seek a confidence vote in parliament within a month to remain in office. The two parties in the new alliance have more than half the members in parliament needed to prove their majority.
Oli’s biggest challenge as prime minister will be to balance Nepal’s relationship with its giant neighbors India and China, as both countries seek to exert influence over the small country. Landlocked Nepal is surrounded on three sides by India and imports all of its oil and most of its supplies from India. It also shares a border with China.
Oli, 72, was born in a village in eastern Nepal and has been involved in politics since childhood.
He rose through the ranks of the Communist Party and was jailed for a total of 14 years for opposing the autocratic rule of Nepal’s monarchs. The royals had banned political parties until 1990, when street protests forced then-King Birendra to hold free elections, turning Nepal into a constitutional monarchy, which was formally abolished in 2008.
Oli has traveled abroad regularly to have his kidneys treated and has undergone kidney transplants.
