President Bidya Devi Bhandari has given political parties seven days to form the next government as per Article 76(2) of the Constitution.
The President’s Office issuing a statement on Sunday has given the parties until five next Sunday evening to form the next government.
“In cases where no party has a clear majority in the House of Representatives pursuant to clause (1), the President shall appoint as the Prime Minister a member of the House of Representatives who is able to command a majority with the support of two or more parties represented in the House of Representatives,” Article 76 (2) of the Constitution states.
At least 138 lawmakers are required to secure a majority in the 275-member HoR. Nepali Congress (NC) is the largest party in the HoR with 89 seats, followed by CPN-UML with 78 seats and Maoist Center a distant third with 32 seats.
New entrant Rastriya Swatantra Party has 20 seats, Rastriya Prajatantra Party 14, Janata Samajwadi Party (JSP) 12 and Janamat Party six seats.
CPN (Unified Socialist) has 10 seats, Loktantrik Samajwadi Party (LSP) has four, and Nagarik Unmukti Party has three seats. Rastriya Janamorcha and Nepal Workers and Peasants Party have one seat each.
Five independent lawmakers – Yogendra Mandal, Amresh Kumar Singh, Kiran Kumar Sah, Prabhu Sah and Lalbir Chaudhary – have also been elected to the HoR.
The number of lawmakers from the current ruling coalition partners – NC, Maoist Center, Unified Socialist, LSP and Rastriya Janamorcha – adds up to 136.
But UML has also been holding discussion with Maoist Center to form the next government. UML (78 seats) and Maoist Center (32) together will have 110 seats and can form a majority government with support of RPP (14), Janata Samajwadi Party (12) and CPN-Unified Socialist (10) easily crossing the magic number of 138.
