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Nepalese President Vidyadevi Bhandari has dissolved parliament. He made the announcement on Sunday on the recommendation of Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli.
At the same time, a new date for the by-elections has been announced. According to the Rashtrapati Bhavan, the first round of voting will take place on April 30 and the second round on May 10.
However, constitutional experts, including a section of Oli’s party, the Nepal Communist Party (NCP), called the decision “unconstitutional”.
According to Nepalese media, Prime Minister Oli called an emergency cabinet meeting yesterday morning. There, he said, they have lost the majority. Then let the parliament be dissolved. Earlier in the day, he held meetings with top party leaders.
The Kathmandu Post, Himalayan Times and other media outlets in Nepal reported that KP Sharma Oli was under increasing pressure on the issue of the Constitutional Council Law Ordinance. He also signed it with President Vidya Devi Bhandari last Tuesday. Furthermore, the opposition between the two sides of his own party also reached a climax. The prime minister and president of the party, Oli, leads one of the two parties in conflict. The other party is led by the party’s chief executive and former prime minister Prachanda.
Vishnu Rizal, leader of the Nepal Communist Party (NCP), said the prime minister had lost a majority. That is why he recommended dissolving parliament.
The Constitutional Council Law gave Prime Minister Oli great power to call meetings and make decisions. Far from having a quorum, he had the right to decide in the presence of only three members. Not all members of the cabinet were present at yesterday’s emergency meeting called by him.
NCP spokesman Narayan Kaji Shrestha said: “The decision to dissolve parliament was taken hastily. Because not all the ministers were present at today’s meeting (yesterday). It goes against democratic norms and such a decision will set the nation back. It cannot be implemented.
Another PNC leader, Madhav Nepal, also said: “It is unconstitutional to dissolve parliament. This decision must be reversed.
Constitutional expert Dinesh Tripathi also called it “unconstitutional.” According to him, there is no provision in the constitution for the prime minister of the majority government to break the constitution. He said that parliament cannot be dissolved as long as there is a possibility of forming a government from an elected parliament.
Nepal’s lower house of parliament, the House of Representatives, has 275 members. KP Sharma Oli’s NCP party formed the government in the 2016 elections. The upper house of the country’s parliament is the National Assembly.
According to the constitution, the next elections will be held in the country in 2022. Sources: PTI, Hindustan Times, Times of India.
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