President Bidhya Devi Bhandari has issued the ordinance on election of National Assembly Friday.
The President’s Office discussed Friday morning about whether to issue the ordinance today or not. She has now signed the ordinance at around 11:30 after consultation with Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, according to sources at the President’s Office.
The issue of ordinance had dragged the President’s Office into controversy with many accusing President Bhandari of sitting on the ordinance on instruction of CPN-UML, the party she was affiliated to before assuming office.
CPN (Maoist Center) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal had advised President Bhandari to issue the ordinance about election of the National Assembly during their meeting on Thursday.
Formation of the new government has been stalled as President Bhandari was sitting on the ordinance for over two months with the parties divided on whether the election for National Assembly should be held in Single Transferable Vote system or majority system.
The left alliance has been demanding that the Election Commission (EC) should announce the final results of HoR and send that to the President’s Office before formation of the National Assembly. But all the other national parties including Nepali Congress (NC), Federal Socialist Forum Nepal (FSFN) and Rastriya Janata Party Nepal (RJP) argue that the EC can determine the number of women each party will have to send to the HoR only after formation of the National Assembly.
The next government cannot be formed until the EC sends the final results of HoR to the President’s Office.
