Oli, opposition alliance stake claim to form govt in Nepal

Nepal’s President Bidya Devi Bhandari has told the opposition alliance that she will seek advice from constitutional experts before taking a call on government formation after her office registered separate premiership claims from it and from PM K P Sharma Oli, according to a media report.

Both Oli and opposition leader Sher Bahadur Deuba presented their claims to the president on Friday, minutes before the 5pm deadline set by Bhandari for the parties to stake a claim to form a new government in Nepal.

Oli was the first to declare that he had the support of 153 lawmakers of the House of Representatives, a day after recommending to the president to initiate the process of forming a new government in accordance with Article 76(5) of the constitution. He argued he doesn’t have adequate support to go through another floor test.

The letter Oli submitted had his signature along with the signatures of Janata Samajbadi Party-nepal chief Mahanta Thakur and the party’s parliamentary party leader Rajendra Mahato.

Likewise, Nepali Congress president Sher Bahadur Deuba along with other leaders of the opposition alliance reached Shital Niwas with signatures of 149 lawmakers, including 27 lawmakers from the Khanal-nepal faction of the CPN-UML.

The president then told the opposition leaders that she would take a call after consulting constitutional experts, The Himalayan Times reported.

Oli’s claim of having the support of 153 lawmakers and Deuba’s claim that he is backed by 149 MPS are both misleading as the two add up to 302 lawmakers - the country’s House of Representatives has only 275 seats.