Nepal set to form new govt as Election Commission has submitted report to President
Dec 15, 2022
Kathmandu [Nepal], December 15 : Nepal is all set to form a new government as the Election Commission submitted the final report to President Bidhya Devi Bhandari on Thursday.
However, the formation of the new government will take a few weeks and can be formed in 2023.
A delegation from the Election Commission earlier on Thursday morning had reached the office of the President and submitted the report to President Bhandari.
"We are preparing to submit the report to the President at 10 AM," Chief Election Commissioner Dinesh Kumar Thapaliya said on Wednesday evening.
Upon receiving the final report, the President will then call for the formation of a new government which is expected due by evening.
On December 14, Election Commission published the final result of the parliamentary elections held on November 20 this year.
The Commission made public the results of the elections held under the First-Past-The-Post (FPTP) and Proportional Representation (PR) categories.
The CPN-UML has won the highest number of seats under the PR category followed by the Nepali Congress (NC) in the election held on November 20.
The UML garnered 34 seats, NC 32, Maoist Center 14, Rastriya Swatantra Party 13, Rastriya Prajatantra Party 7, Janata Samajwadi Party and Janamat Party 5 each under the PR system.
With the report being submitted to the President and a call for government formation by the Premier, the incumbent caretaker government would recommend to the President to call the first meeting of the parliament. President will then call the house session on the date recommended by the caretaker cabinet.
In the first meeting of the house, the senior-most member (on the basis of age) will take oath from the president and then would swear in the remaining members of parliament at the meeting.
The formal procedure to form the new government would then start from the second meeting of the house. The parties who would be contesting for the post of Prime Minister would then need to choose their parliamentary leaders.
The new constitution promulgated in 2015, which witnessed widespread protest and bloodshed in the Southern Plains, has given authority to President to choose Prime Minister from the party which has the highest seats in the parliament.
Section 76 sub-section 1 of the Constitution of Nepal has the provision of electing the leader from the major party in the parliament to be nominated as Prime Minister and can form the government.
The sub-section 2 of the same section in the Nepali constitution also has the provision for the appointment of a new Prime Minister in case any of the parties failed to garner an absolute majority. It has stated that the President can appoint a party leader who can complete the majority mark by getting support from other incumbent parties.
But the government formed after garnering support from two or more than that is mandated to testify the support in parliament within 30 days of its formation.
In case the government fails to get endorsed then the President should give another chance to garner a majority and upon the repeated failure the President can dissolve the House of Representatives and call for another election within 6 months.
The constitution also has fixed the number of ministers in the centre with a number limit of 25 seats inclusive of the Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister, Ministers, State Ministers and Minister Aide.
Section 76's sub-section 9 of the Constitution of Nepal has the provision limiting the number of cabinets as well as ensuring inclusiveness in the government which also will see members from the State assemblies too.
The state government also will have cabinet members not exceeding 10 per cent of the total number of members in the state assembly. But it will require the announcement of the state centre, Chief Minister of the state as a prerequisite.
The constitutional provision stated in Section 168 about the formation of the state government is similar to the formation of the government at the centre.
As none of the parties has secured a clear majority and due to this the process would take a long time as parties are yet to reach an agreement. Though the coalition of four parties is set to continue, they are yet to come to an understanding on a power-sharing deal.