NEPAL’S governing alliance has pledged to create a stable government that will be able to complete a full five-year term in the Himalayan nation that has had 13 different governments in the past 16 years.

The alliance of four political parties is contesting the November 20 parliamentary elections together in hopes of retaining power.

“Our commitment is that the next government will complete the full five-year term and provide the country with stability because we will keep our partnership intact,” Pushpa Kamal Dahal, the leader of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), a key member of the alliance, said today.

Political stability is much needed in the country, where frequent changes in government and squabbles among parties have been blamed for delays in writing the constitution and slow economic development.

No government since the abolition of the centuries-old monarchy in 2008 has completed a full term.

Mr Dahal said that the parties in the governing alliance have pledged to remain together for parliament’s full five-year term after the election, which he said they will comfortably win against a bigger communist party and its partners.

The alliance’s biggest competition is the Communist Party of Nepal (United Marxist-Leninist) headed by former prime minister Khadga Prasad Oli.

Mr Dahal and Mr Oli had merged their groups into a big communist party which contested the 2017 parliamentary election and won a majority of seats, leading to hopes of a stable government.

Mr Oli then became prime minister, but midway through the five-year term he refused to comply with an agreement that Mr Dahal would become leader for the remaining period. Me Dahal, unhappy with Mr Oli, split from the party, ending the government’s tenure.

Mr Dahal said there would be no break-up in the present governing partnership. Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba’s Nepali Congress is the biggest in the group and is the country’s oldest party.

Although the alliance has agreed to contest the election together, it has not decided who will become prime minister if it wins, he said.