The government has recommended withdrawal of the ordinance making splitting of parties easier.
A minister confirmed with Setopati that the Cabinet meeting on Monday has decided to write to President Bidya Devi Bhandari recommending withdrawal of the ordinance.
The government has also decided to present bill about swearing-in of public officials in the House.
The ordinance brought by the government on August 17 allows split of a party with support of just 20 percent in either the central committee or parliamentary party. The act about political parties required support of 40 percent in both the parliamentary party and the central committee to split any political party.
Madhav Kumar Nepal split CPN-UML to form CPN (Unified Socialist) and Mahantha Thakur split Janata Samajwadi Party (JSP) to form Loktantrik Samajwadi Party (LSP) after the ordinance was issued.
The Constitution allows the government to recommend to the president to revoke any ordinance. The then prime minister (PM) KP Sharma Oli had also got the ordinance related to the Constitutional Council revoked through President Bhandari.
The government was under pressure from JSP to withdraw the ordinance.
Sher Bahadur Deuba, who was appointed prime minister (PM) on July 13, has not been able to complete the Cabinet in more than two months and has inducted just three ministers from Nepali Congress (NC) and two from Maoist Center and a state minister from NC.
Deuba has not been able to expand the Cabinet due to differences in the ruling coalition about the ordinance making splitting of parties easier.
He was expected to expand it after September 7, the deadline the Election Commission gave to CPN-UML provincial lawmakers and local representatives to join CPN (Unified Socialist). But he has not been able to expand it after coalition partners CPN (Unified Socialist) and Janata Samajwadi Party (JSP) took different stances on what to do about the ordinance.
Chairman of Unified Socialist Madhav Kumar Nepal wanted the bill to be passed as it is without any amendment in the ordinance fearing any amendment can cause problem for his newly registered party. He was adamant that the bill should not be amended at least until the SC issues verdict on the case about split in UML.
JSP Chairman Upendra Yadav, on the other hand, insisted that the bill should either be revoked or amended before Cabinet expansion pointing that there is danger of another split in the party if some leaders are not made ministers.
The ruling coalition on Sunday decided to withdraw the ordinance to pave the way for Cabinet expansion.
The Monday's Cabinet meeting has also decided to present the bill about swearing-in of public officials in the House after legal questions were raised about swearing-in of new ministers.
"The Prime Minister, the Deputy Prime Minister and minister shall take the oath of office and secrecy before the President, and, the state minister and assistant minister before the Prime Minister according to Federal law," states Article 80 of the Constitution. But there is no federal law about that.
The then Oli government had hastily brought an ordinance about swearing-in after questions were raised about the issue. PM Deuba and the ministers had been sworn in as per that ordinance. But the ordinance has automatically been nullified after September 15 as the current government did not bring in replacement bill for that ordinance.
