Kathmandu, Jan. 5: Former Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba has refused to accept the voting results of the no-confidence motion of the Nepali Congress Parliamentary Party Committee (NCPPC).

The no-trust motion against Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala had failed Thursday after 69 of the 112 MPs present at the NCPPC meeting stood by Koirala in an open voting. However, 41 MPs, all Deuba supporters, had boycotted the voting.

The motion had been registered by 56 Congress MPs last Thursday saying that Koirala had failed to fulfill the promises he made while taking over power 10 months back.

After the motion failed, Deuba and the 40 dissident MPs organised a press conference today at Deuba’s contact office at Baneshwor. They said that they would continue their struggle against, what they called, anti-democratic practices existing within the party.

Talking about future strategies, Deuba, who has been leading the dissident group, said their immediate focus would be on the party’s General Convention to be held in Pokhara in a month’s time. He also stressed that the party will not split. But he did not deny the possibility of them registering a no-confidence motion against the government in the parliament at an appropriate time.

Refusing the voting results, Deuba said that they had not formally tabled the no-confidence motion at the meeting. “We had only discussed on the modality of the voting. When Prime Minister Koirala did not agree to our demand of secret balloting we boycotted the meeting.”

He accused Koirala of infringing on the freedom of the MPs by enticing them to vote against the motion.