Process For New Govt Starts

The nation is going to have a new federal government soon. Having received the final results of the November 20 elections to the House of Representatives (HoR) from the Election Commission (EC), President Bidya Devi Bhandari Sunday called the members of the Lower House of the Federal Parliament to come up with their claim for the formation of a government by December 25. Only a leader of a parliamentary mustering support of majority of lawmakers from two or more political parties is entitled to form and head the new government. 

Since no single party has secured majority in the 275-member HoR to form the government under Article 76 (1) of the Constitution of Nepal, two or more parties can constitute the government as per Article 76 (2).  The President has asked the parties to submit their claim to constitute the new government under the leadership of a member of the newly-elected HoR, who can prove his/her majority with support of two or more parties.

The President shall appoint only such a member and parliamentary party leaders as the prime minister. S/he will have to prove the confidence of the House in his/her government in the next 30 days.   

The ruling Nepali Congress (NC) has become the largest party in the HoR by securing a total of 89 seats while the CPN-UML has emerged as the second largest party with 78 seats. Similarly, the CPN-Maoist Centre is now the third largest party with its 32 lawmakers and the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) fourth with 20 seats in the HoR. The Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP), Janata Samajwadi Party-Nepal and CPN (Unified Socialist) now possess 14, 12 and 10 seats, respectively.

Even when most political parties had contested the polls by forging alliances, no coalition was able to garner the majority seats. With the President’s call, the political parties have intensified their meetings to form the new government. Leaders of different political forces now seem to be quite busy holding hectic parleys as part of their effort to be at the helm of the new government.  

The political parties have also initiated the process of choosing their respective parliamentary party leaders. They are likely to pick their parliamentary party leaders at the earliest possible with the deadline to submit their claim for the government nearing. Most of the parties have shown their keen interest in joining the government. Being the largest party, the NC has decided to form the government under its own leadership.

A meeting of the party’s Central Work Execution Committee, which was held at the party’s central office at Sanepa on Sunday, took a decision to start discussions with the ruling coalition partners as well as others in this regard. The CPN-UML is also holding talks with various political parties in regard with the formation of the new government. Meanwhile, the CPN-Maoist Centre has portrayed itself as a decisive force when it comes to forming the next government. Its chair Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda has already expressed his interest in leading the next government. 

Meanwhile, the Federal Parliament Secretariat has expedited preparations for the commencement of the House session.  The constitutional provision is that the President needs to convene the House session within 30 days of the submission of the final election results.

The process of convening provincial assembly meetings and forming new provincial governments will also begin in the near future as the election authority has already submitted the ultimate results of the polls to the Province Chiefs.