Nepal’s President Bidya Devi Bhandari today dissolved the country’s parliament on the advice of Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli after a constitutional stalemate over an executive order released last week. The decision to order the suspension of the House of Representatives was made at the Cabinet emergency meeting this morning.
The Nepalese House of Representatives, elected in 2017, has 275 members. The next general election was scheduled in the Himalayan nation in 2022. President Bhandari declared today that the national elections will be held between April 30 and May 10, 2021, according to ANI, quoting a statement from the President’s office.
“PM Oli was under pressure to withdraw an ordinance related to the Constitutional Council Act that he had issued on Tuesday and got endorsed by President Bidya Devi Bhandari the same day the Kathmandu Post newspaper published today. It also claimed that the Cabinet meeting today was supposed to propose the replacement of the ordinance.
Following the suggestion of the Prime Minister to disband the House and the nod of President Bhandar, seven of his ministers resigned from the Cabinet on Sunday, ANI said. The Ordinance amending the Legislative Council Act was adopted on 15 December and reportedly violates the concept of checks and balances. It allowed the Constitutional Council to convene a meeting provided it was attended by a majority of its members. PM Oli then arranged such a meeting on the evening of 15 December itself, according to the Kathmandu Post.
The Legislative Council is chaired by the Prime Minister and includes the Chief Justice, the Chancellor, the President of the National Assembly, the Leader of the Opposition and the Vice Speaker as its Representatives. It proposes that main appointments be made to
different constitutional bodies.
Meanwhile the Nepal Communist Party Prime Minister said today that he had lost majority support, according to the Reuters report. “The prime minister has lost the majority in the parliamentary party, central committee and the secretariat of the party,” said Bishnu Rijal, a member of the NPC Central Committee.
