Kathmandu [Nepal], December 19 (ANI): The first meeting of Nepal’s newly-elected lower House will be held on December 22.
The Parliament secretariat announced that the oath-taking ceremony of newly-elected representatives will take place on Thursday at 1 pm (local time). Elections were held in the Himalayan nation last month.
The timing for swearing-in ceremony of new representatives has been decided and the process of identifying the eldest member (on the basis of age) of the House is being carried out.
MPs will take oath during the meeting of the House. While the eldest member will be sworn in by the President, the other members will be sworn in by eldest member who will be the pro-tem Speaker.
Dr Rojnath Pandey, spokesperson of the Federal Parliament Secretariat, said that they have sent a letter to the Election Commission to identify the senior-most member of the House.
Among the newly-elected members, the age details of Chitra Bahadur KC, Mahantha Thakur, Mahendra Roy Yadav and Pashupati ShumsherRana appear to have been scrutinized.
According to the final results published by Election Commission, the Nepali Congress has secured the highest 89 seats with CPN-UML (Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist Leninist) tailing second with 78, Maoist Centre with 32, Rastriya Swatantra Party with 20, Rastriya Prajatantra Party with 14 and Janata Samajbadi Party with 12 out of total 275 seats.
If any member wishes to take the oath of office in his mother tongue, he shall arrange a translation of the oath paper into the concerned language and inform the parliament-secretariat three days before the oath-taking ceremony.
According to the information provided by the secretariat, as many as 36 members had taken oath in 11 “mother tongues” (excluding Nepali) after the House of Representatives elections till 2017.
The members were administered the oath of office in Maithili, Tharu, Bhojpuri, Magar, Hindi, Abadhi, Nepali Bhasha, Banjika, Newari, Urdu, and Tamang languages.
Ahead of the swearing-in ceremony, Nepal’s President Bidya Devi Bhandari on Sunday called upon the parties to present their claim for Prime Minister in seven days by 5 pm (local time) by December 25.
Even though the President has already set the deadline, none of the political parties have the majority to claim the post. Bidya Devi Bhandari has called on the parties to form a coalition government.
The new Prime Minister will get 30 days to prove the majority in parliament.
If the government fails to get endorsed, then the President will give another chance to prove the majority. Upon repeated failures, the President can dissolve the House of Representatives and call for fresh elections within 6 months.
The Constitution states that there can be a maximum of 25 ministers. (ANI)
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