The president’s office announced Friday that Sushila Karki, the former chief justice of Nepal, has been named to lead the transition as the nation’s next prime minister following the overthrow of the government due to fatal demonstrations.
Later on Friday, Karki, 73, will take the oath of office as Nepal’s first female chief judge.
The 30 million-person Himalayan nation was thrown into pandemonium this week when security forces attempted to disperse demonstrations by young people against corruption.
At least 51 people were killed in the worst violence since the end of a civil war and the abolition of the monarchy in 2008.
KP Sharma Oli, the 73-year-old leader of the Communist Party, quit as prime minister on Tuesday. His whereabouts are not known.
“President Ram Chandra Paudel will appoint former chief justice Sushila Karki as the prime minister,” presidential press adviser Kiran Pokharel told AFP.
A swearing-in ceremony will take place at 9:00 pm (1515 GMT), he added.
Pokharel stated that “a council of ministers will be formed after, and other processes will be taken from there” .
As army head General Ashok Raj Sigdel and Paudel met with representatives of “Gen Z,” the informal umbrella term for the youth protest movement, the military regained control of the streets on Wednesday and enforced a curfew.
“It is a moment of victory… finally the power vacuum has ended,” Amrita Ban, a Gen Z protester.
Nimesh Shrestha, who was part of the Gen Z protest, told AFP that the demonstrators backed the former judge.
“We have an agreement,” he told AFP. “The parliament will be dissolved. Sushila Karki will be the prime minister.”
