Nepal is headed for mid-term polls in November this year following the House of Representatives being dissolved by President Bidya Devi Bhandari, who confirmed that Prime Minister K. P. Sharma Oli and the Opposition alliance were not in a position to form a government.
The President announced mid-term polls on November 12 and 19, after Prime Minister Oli recommended dissolution of the 275-member House following an emergency midnight Cabinet meeting. Dates of midterm polls were announced in line with Article 76 (7) of the Constitution of Nepal, an official release stated.
This is the second time President Bhandari has dissolved Parliament on the recommendation of Prime Minister Oli following a political crisis. Earlier, President Bhandari had dissolved Parliament on December 20, 2020 which was reinstated by the Supreme Court in February, 2021.
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There are an estimated 300 Filipinos living in Nepal who are mostly professionals, skilled workers, volunteers, missionaries, or married to Nepalis or other nationals.
The council of ministers has recommended conducting the first phase of the poll on November 12 and the second phase on November 19. With four lawmakers in the 275-member House of Representatives dismissed by their party after they chose to be part of another party, a prime ministerial candidate requires support of at least 136 lawmakers in Parliament to form a new government
Nepal’s faced a political crisis as Prime Minister Oli and the Opposition parties staked their claims for forming the new government by displaying letters of support from lawmakers to the President.
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Prime Minister Oli claimed support of 153 lawmakers of the House of Representatives, a day after recommending to the president to initiate the process for formation of a new government in accordance to Article 76(5) of the Constitution, as he did not have adequate support to go through another floor test. His letter had included the signatures of Janata Samajbadi Party-Nepal chair Mahanta Thakur and the party’s parliamentary party leader Rajendra Mahato.
Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba had submitted his letter that included signatures of 149 lawmakers including 27 lawmakers from the Khanal-Nepal faction of the CPN-UML.
However, confusion reigned when several lawmakers from the Madhav Nepal faction stated that they had not signed any paper to install Opposition leader Deuba as the prime minister against their own party chief. (AW)
