The left alliance has put pressure on the Election Commission (EC) to announce final results of the House of Representatives (HoR) even without formation of the National Assembly.
The EC has not allotted seats to the parties in the proportional representation (PR) system citing the issue of female representation. CPN-UML leader Subas Chandra Nembang said message has been sent to the EC to announce final results but refused to divulge whether the party leaders met EC commissioners.
Leaders of the left alliance have been saying that the National Assembly is not related to formation of the new government. "The EC must announce results. We are waiting for that," Nembang stated. "We have also sent message to the EC."
He opined that the election results should be announced if not for anything else than the provision of starting vote counting immediately after election and not stopping vote counting.
UML Chairman KP Oli and CPN (Maoist Center) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal earlier on Wednesday met President Bidhya Devi Bhandari. Nembang was also present in the meeting. The leaders had proposed to the President to initiate the process of government formation once the final results are announced.
Personal secretary to the President Bhesh Raj Adhikari confirmed with Setopati that the President discussed about election results with party leaders. "President said all the constitutional bodies will fulfill their respective duties," he added.
The left alliance leaders also urged the President to not issue the ordinance about the National Assembly. They told the President that the Single Transferable Vote system has not been mentioned in the Constitution and informed that the bill agreed on by all the parties was not submitted in the parliament.
"The government brought an ordinance that is diametrically opposite to the bill submitted to the House. It is wrong to bring laws through an ordinance even during normal times. We have told the President that it is not right for a caretaker government to bring an ordinance," Nembang revealed.
He claimed that there is no obstruction to formation of a new government now that the election of HoR has already been completed. He further asserted that the current Constitution has the provision allowing formation of a government even when there is no House meeting.
The confrontational stances of political parties on the ordinance about the election of National Assembly has delayed government formation and also dragged the President's Office into the controversy.
The President's Office is sitting on the ordinance that is indirectly obstructing the formation of new government with the EC formally announcing it will not announce final results for federal parliament until the election for National Assembly. It has been saying it must wait and see the composition of National Assembly before writing to each party to send the necessary number of women for HoR through the PR system to ensure that each party has at least one-third women members in HoR and National Assembly combined.
The new government cannot be formed unless the EC sends the final results of the federal parliament to the President's Office which will then invite the left alliance which has secured a big majority to form the government.
