The Cabinet meeting has started at the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers in Singha Durbar Friday morning.
It is expected to announce that the first meeting of provincial assemblies will be convened at the places that currently have High Courts. Biratnagar has the High Court in Province 1, Janakpur in Province 2, Lalitpur in Province 3, Pokhara in Province 4, Dang in Province 5, Surkhet in Province 6 and Dipayal in Province 7.
The Cabinet meeting was also expected to appoint provincial chiefs but that may not be announced in lack of consensus on the name of persons to be appointed, according to Baluwatar sources.
The process of forming provincial governments has been stalled in lack of provincial chiefs and temporary provincial capitals. Provincial secretariats will be formed after announcement of provincial chiefs and temporary provincial capitals.
The Election Commission (EC) will submit the final results of provincial assembly elections to the respective provincial chiefs, as per the Constitution. It has already prepared the final results for both first-past-the-post (FPTP) and proportional representation (PR) systems of all seven provincial assemblies.
The Constitution requires the provincial chief to convene the first meeting of provincial assembly within 20 days of announcement of final results. The provincial assembly members will be administered oath of office by the respective provincial chiefs before they take part in the first meeting of provincial assembly.
The provincial chief will appoint the parliamentary party leader of the party that has majority in the provincial assembly as chief minister (CM), according to the Article 168 of Constitution. Any provincial assembly member that can muster majority in the provincial assembly with support of two or more than two parties will be appointed CM if no single party has majority in the provincial assembly.
Appointment of the CM must be completed within 35 days of announcement of the final results of provincial assembly, according to the Constitution.
