President Ram Chandra Paudel has invited parties to form new government after Prime Minister (PM) Pushpa Kamal Dahal failed floor test in the House of Representatives (HoR) on Friday.
President Paudel invited parties to form the new government under Article 76(2) of the Constitution, according to a statement issued by Spokesperson at the President’s Office Shailaja Regmi Bhattarai Friday evening.
“In cases where no party has a clear majority in the House of Representatives under clause (1), the President shall appoint as the Prime Minister a member of the House of Representatives who can command majority with the support of two or more parties representing to the House of Representatives,” states Article 76(2) of the Constitution.
The parties have been given until five Sunday afternoon to stake claim to form the next government.
PM Dahal, who had secured vote of confidence four times during this term of HoR, failed in his attempt to secure it for a fifth time earlier on Friday.
Speaker Devraj Ghimire announced that PM Dahal received just 63 votes while a whopping 194 lawmakers voted against his government. One lawmaker remained neutral. A total of 258 lawmakers took part in the voting.
The HoR meeting has been adjourned until Sunday.
Dahal sought floor test after the largest party in the ruling coalition, CPN-UML, withdrew its support from the government. Janata Samajwadi Party led by Ashok Rai has also withdrawn its support from the government.
The Constitution requires the PM to take floor test within 30 days if any party in the ruling coalition splits or withdraws support from the government.
Nepali Congress (NC) President Sher Bahadur Deuba and UML Chairman Oli had signed a seven-point agreement on July 1 but the points have yet to be made public. Both the parties have got the deal endorsed internally but they have yet to publicly reveal the seven-point deal.
But NC and UML leaders, seeking anonymity, have confirmed with Setopati that Oli will lead the government for the first two years while Deuba will lead the next government, that will also hold the next general election, for one and a half years.
There are reports that the points also include pledge to reform electoral system and system of governance among other things.
The two biggest parties in the House have agreed to form the government as per Article 76(2) of the Constitution.
The agreement means that the ruling coalition will change yet again in just four months.
The coalition between Nepali Congress (NC) and CPN (Maoist Center) had broken giving way to a new ruling coalition of the Maoists UML on March 3.
The previous ruling coalition was formed around a year before that ahead of the election for president after Dahal broke the then coalition with UML. NC, Maoist Center, JSP and Unified Socialist had then decided to revive the pre-election alliance.
Dahal had quit the pre-election alliance with NC and Unified Socialist on December 25, 2022 and became prime minister (PM) with support of CPN-UML, Rastriya Swatantra Party, RPP, Janata Samajwadi Party (JSP), Janamat Party and Nagarik Unmukti Party after Nepali Congress (NC) President Sher Bahadur Deuba refused to make him PM first.
