Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli outlined his government’s five key objectives while seeking a vote of confidence from the House of Representatives on Sunday.

Oli, who became prime minister on July 15 with the support of the Nepali Congress, highlighted five objectives of his government. These include completing ongoing projects; producing goods locally instead of importing them and supporting industries that use local materials; continuing the beneficial policies of previous governments; amending the budget if needed; and eradicating hunger, he said.

Prime Minister Oli has pledged that the new government will take strict action against corruption. While seeking a vote of confidence from the House of Representatives on Sunday, he stated that his government will neither engage in nor tolerate corruption.

“We will take legal action against those involved in corruption, no matter when it happened,” Prime Minister Oli said while addressing the House.

Even as leaders of the main opposition party, CPN (Maoist Centre), and the Rastriya Swatantra Party, have accused the Congress and the UML of teaming up to cover past incidents of corruption, Prime Minister Oli responded by pledging to hold all those involved in corruption accountable.

Prime Minister Oli also said he will act urgently on the cooperatives scam, and ensure swift action against those found guilty.

The government on May 28 constituted a parliamentary special probe committee to investigate the embezzlement in cooperatives. UML lawmaker Surya Thapa leads the committee, which was mandated to submit its report to the government in three months since its inception.

While seeking a vote of confidence from Parliament, Prime Minister Oli laid out his case for why he should earn the trust of the House.

Claiming that the country is in a state of unprecedented frustration, Oli urged other parties in the House to support him in restoring stability. He also cited the country’s struggling economy and other problems as reasons why he deserves their trust.

Likewise, Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba called for efforts to curb corruption and promote good governance. Deuba also emphasised the need to amend the constitution to shore up the federal democratic republican system.

Amending the constitution is one of the points mentioned in the July 1 agreement between the Congress.

“It has been eight years since the constitution was adopted,” Deuba said. “It is a natural part of democracy to review and amend the constitution to address its strengths and weaknesses.”

He said amendments should be made through consensus among political parties.

“The prime minister is hardworking, studious, and experienced,” Deuba said, expressing his party’s confidence in Prime Minister Oli. “The ministers are qualified and capable, so I believe that the country will progress under their leadership.”

Before this, Prime Minister Oli read out the content of their July 1 seven-point agreement. He said that the agreement aimed to address the country’s pressing issues.

“Our ideologies complement each other and there are several instances of collaboration between the Congress and the UML,” said Prime Minister Oli. “This is a continuation of that collaboration. We have agreed to work together to protect national interest, control corruption, improve governance, expedite development activities and ensure political stability in accordance with public expectations.”

As per the agreement read out by Oli, Congress President Deuba will lead the government ahead of the next general elections.

The prime minister had made the details of the midnight deal public three weeks after he had signed it along with Congress President Deuba. Leaders from the Congress and other parties had been raising questions about the secrecy around the deal.

Political observers, meanwhile, said it would have been better had the original signed agreement been made public.

“One of the core components of democracy is transparency, so the original document with the signatures of Deuba and Oli should have been made public,” Dambar Khatiwada, a political analyst, told the Post. “It is not good to keep the country in the dark by not disclosing the original document.”

However, the chief whip of the coalition government Mahesh Bartaula dismisses such concerns. “Earlier, we were criticised for not disclosing the agreement, and now some people want the original,” Bartaula told the Post.

While coalition partners Congress, UML, Janata Samajbadi Party, and Loktantrik Samajbadi Party, support Oli, the opposition parties have lambasted the new coalition government.

Speaking from the Maoist Centre, Barshaman Pun, the party’s deputy general secretary, warned that the country is at risk of being run by middlemen instead of politicians.

Rabi Lamichhane, president of the RSP, expressed his disappointment saying that his faith in Oli’s commitment to good governance has been shaken by the new government’s initial actions.

The people who were under the previous government’s investigation were seen celebrating [at Oli’s residence] in Balkot, Lamichhane said, referring to Congress lawmaker and billionaire Binod Chaudhary. “The celebrations happened during an ongoing investigation on the Bansbari Leather and Shoes land issue. This makes us suspicious.”

While the Rastriya Prajantra Party chairman Rajendra Lingden accused the Congress and the UML for bringing political instability, CPN (Unified Socialist) Party chair Madhav Kumar Nepal urged Prime Minister Oli to engage in self criticism. Nepal also examined the reasons behind the change in the power equation.

Prime Minister Oli, along with his coalition partners, also secured the vote of the Janata Samajbadi Party Nepal, Janamat Party, and Nagarik Unmukti Party during the trust motion.

In the 275-member strong House of Representatives, Prime Minister Oli gained the trust vote of two-thirds majority of the House. Out of 263 lawmakers present during the floor test, he secured 188 votes, exceeding a two-thirds majority by four votes. While 74 lawmakers stood against him, one lawmaker stayed neutral.

Twelve lawmakers were absent, according to the Parliament Secretariat. Three lawmakers from the Congress, three lawmakers from the Rastriya Prajatantra Party, one lawmaker from the Maoist Centre, one from the Rastriya Swatantra Party, and three lawmakers from the UML [including the Speaker and Top Bahadur Rayamajhi, who is currently in jail] were absent during the floor test.