The Nepali Congress and CPN-UML have collected signatures from a majority of outgoing lawmakers in favor of the restoration of the House of Representatives.
In the 275-member House of Representatives, 138 lawmakers constitute a majority.
As of the time of filing this report, 75 outgoing lawmakers from the UML and 66 from the NC have signed in favor of House restoration.
On November 26, the UML submitted the signatures of 75 lawmakers to the Supreme Court. The party had collected the signatures during a meeting of members of the dissolved House held at the party office in Chyasal.
Through the meeting, the UML authorized outgoing chief whip Mahesh Bartaula and whip Sunita Baral to file a writ petition, attaching the signatures of 75 lawmakers.
The NC had initially decided to stand in favor of elections despite calling the House dissolution unconstitutional.
However, eight lawmakers, including outgoing chief whip Shyam Kumar Ghimire and whip Sushila Thing, filed a writ petition in the Supreme Court on December 9.
The NC has now collected separate signatures from an additional 58 outgoing lawmakers, requesting to include them as parties to the same petition.
Through these signatures on traditional Nepali paper, the lawmakers will demand to be recognized as petitioners in the case filed by Ghimire. Almost all NC lawmakers, except for the top leadership, have signed the document.
"As of today, 58 outgoing lawmakers have signed," said an employee at the NC parliamentary party office in Singha Durbar. "Leaders including Shashank Koirala, Ramesh Lekhak, Badri Prasad Pandey, and Jeevan Pariyar have signed the petition."
The NC is preparing to submit these signatures to the Supreme Court on Monday.
"We have institutionally submitted the signatures of 75 individuals," said Bartaula, the UML chief whip in the dissolved House. "Congress lawmakers are preparing to submit a supplementary petition to be included in the petition filed by Shyam Kumar Ghimire and other lawmakers. The two parties are coordinating on this matter."
Sushila Thing, the NC whip in the dissolved House, said that preparations are underway to move the court after securing a majority of Parliament.
"Our view is that when a majority of lawmakers state that the dissolution of the House of Representatives is unconstitutional, undemocratic, and disregards the public mandate, the court must respect that," Thing said. “It would not be appropriate for us to comment on the court’s jurisdiction and procedure.”
An employee at the NC parliamentary party told Setopati that the process of collecting signatures of NC lawmakers is ongoing. However, top leaders including Sher Bahadur Deuba, Purna Bahadur Khadka, Gagan Thapa, Bishwa Prakash Sharma, and Shekhar Koirala have not signed the supplementary petition.
