DHAKA: Nepal’s parliament has chosen Khadga Prasad Sharma Oli as the new prime minister, sweeping him into a number of challenges from rebuilding recently earthquake-hit areas and calming street protests, to soothing tensions with neighboring India.

On Sunday, politicians voted for KP Oli of the country’s second largest party, the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist). Current Prime Minister Sushil Koirala stepped down as required by the new constitution, which was adopted on September 20.

Oli is immediately tasked with calming protests in the country’s southern plains triggered by the adoption of the new constitution, which is aimed at bolstering the Himalayan nation's transformation to a democracy after decades of political instability and a civil war.

The constitution is the final stage in a peace process that began when Maoist fighters laid down their arms in 2006 after a decade-long rebellion aimed at abolishing an autocratic monarchy and creating an equal society.

But the charter, the first to be drawn up by elected representatives, triggered a blockade along India's border by protesters, cutting off fuel supplies from India and sparking a nationwide shortage.

For two weeks, trucks from India have stopped crossing across Nepal's border.

Protesters from the southern plains are incensed about the charter, which will divide the country into several federal provinces with some borders slicing through the ancestral homeland of ethnic Madhesis who have close ties with India.

‘The protests are likely to radicalize even further if (Oli) doesn’t change his views,’ said Dipendra Jha, a lawyer at the Supreme Court, reports Al Jazeera.

BDST: 2202 HRS, OCT 11, 2015
RR