In a two-man race, outgoing Prime Minister and Nepali Congress President Sushil Koirala and CPN-UML Chairman KP Sharma Oli have filed their candidacy for the PM election scheduled for Sunday.

Koirala resigned from the post before registering his name in the race on Saturday. NC leader Sher Bahadur Deuba is his proposer while party Vice-president Ram Chandra Poudel is the seconder. Koirala fielded himself for a second term after a meeting of the NC office bearers picked his name despite aspirations of Deuba and Poudel for the post.

Koirala then submitted his resignation which President Ram Baran Yadav endorsed immediately. Even as the PM recommended on October 2 that President Yadav call for a consensus government, he had not resigned officially.

Oli filed his candidacy earlier than Koirala. Oli reached the Parliament Secretariat with leaders from over a dozen parties to register his bid. UCPN (Maoist) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal is the proposer and Rastriya Prajatantra Party-Nepal Chair Kamal Thapa, among 13 other lawmakers, is the seconder of Oli’s candidacy.

CP Mainali, Chitra Bahadur KC, Bishwendra Paswan, Shiva Lal Thapa, Prem Bahadur Singh, Kumar Khadka, Ram Kumar Rai, Hari Charan Shah, Laxman Rajbanshi, Yashoda Kumari Lama, Deepak Bohara and independent lawmaker Atahar Kamal are also other seconders of Oli.

“We have extended our unconditional support to Oli,” said Thapa. Senior leaders from the party claim the UML has assured a deputy PM and foreign minister and two other ministerial berths to the fourth largest party.

The UML candidate has so far got support from the chairpersons of parties which have 323 lawmakers in Parliament in total. The UML claims the backing of at least 323 MPs. A candidate needs 299 of the 597 voters to be elected the PM. The UCPN (M) and RRP-Nepal have issued whip to their lawmakers to vote for Oli.

However, no other parties have openly assured support to NC candidate Koirala though it is likely that the Madhes-based parties, with 57 members in House in total, will stand for him. If there are no dramatic changes, Oli looks all set to be the new prime minister.

The voting process will kick off at 11am on Sunday.

Support for Oli

Parties    Lawmakers

UML    183

UCPN (Maoist)    83

RPP-Nepal    25

RPP    12

CPN-ML    5

Rastriya Janamorcha    3

Fringe parties plus independent    12

Total    323

In Koirala’s favour

Nepali Congress    203

Madhesi parties*    57

(NC hopes to get support from the regional parties)