President Bidya Devi Bhandari dissolved the House of Representatives, the lower house of the federal parliament, in the wee hours on Saturday.
Issuing a statement at 1:49 AM by the Office of the President, the head of the state dissolved the House as per Article 76 (7) of the Constitution on the recommendation of the Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli decision taken at the cabinet meeting held at Friday midnight.
According to the announcement the election of the parliament– what it called the midterm elections – will be held on November 12 and 19, a year ahead of schedule.
The announcement follows the hours-long political drama in Kathmandu, in which two leaders– ruling party UML’s premier K.P. Sharma Oli submitted the names of lawmakers from UML and Janata Samajwadi Party while the leader of the main opposition party Nepali Congress Sher Bahadur Deuba staked his claims for the post of Prime Minister with the signatures of the majority lawmakers supporting him.
After this, the politics of Nepal was on the center stage with the question of whom the President will call to form the new government.
But alas…. in the middle of the midnight, the President decided that both the claims could not be accepted as some lawmakers’ signatures were found in both the lists. So, the President finally dissolved the Parliament at midnight at the recommendation of a mastermind political drama being played by the prime minister.
Though, at the request of the PM Oli himself, the President Bhandari issued a call for the new PM who could secure the majority in the House on Thursday evening.
PM Oli, who is bound to face the Vote of Confidence at the House by June 12 constitutionally, made a request to the President saying that he was certain to secure the majority on Thursday evening.
But apparently, Oli was the first to stake his claim to the premiership with the majority support on Friday afternoon.
Earlier, PM Oli had dissolved the Parliament on December 20, 2020, But the Supreme Court reinstated it on February 23 this year, citing all efforts were not made to form the new government.
This time, therefore, Oli has managed to try two alternative methods of government formation although his moves have been constitutionally debated.
