Lawmaker Questions Delay in Summoning First Session of House of Representatives Amid Constitutional Deadline
Kathmandu. Harkaraj Rai, Chairman of the Shram Sanskriti Party, has questioned when the newly elected House of Representatives session will be called. Rai wrote on social media platform Facebook on Monday, "When will the first session of the house be called? Why run away from the people's questions? Where is the procedure? You cannot do as you please! Let's be careful!"
However, the cabinet led by Balendra Shah (Balen), who became Prime Minister with a majority of the MPs elected from the same House of Representatives election, has not yet called the session of the Federal Parliament (National Assembly and House of Representatives). The Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) secured a comfortable majority by winning 182 seats in the 275-member House of Representatives.
Since a single party secured a majority, RSP senior leader Balen became the parliamentary party leader and was appointed Prime Minister last Friday (Chaitra-13), took the oath, and assumed office.
According to Article 93 of the Constitution of Nepal, the session must be called within 30 days of the final declaration of the results of the House of Representatives election.
Article 93 regarding the summoning and dissolution of the session states: "The President shall summon a session of the Federal Parliament within 30 days from the date of the final declaration of the results of the election held for the House of Representatives."
The final results of the House of Representatives election held on Falgun 21 were submitted to President Ramchandra Paudel by the Election Commission on Chaitra 5.
Since Chaitra ends on the 30th, 30 days from the final result announcement will be completed on Baishakh 4. Therefore, the government led by Balen has a constitutional obligation to summon the Federal Parliament session by Baishakh 5.
The summoning of the Federal Parliament session is legally arranged for the President to do so based on a decision by the Cabinet and the recommendation made by the government. The first session must be called with a notice period of 7 days.
When contacted for information regarding the summoning of the Federal Parliament session, the government spokesperson, Sammit Pokhrel, who is also the Minister of Education, Science and Technology and Youth and Sports, was unavailable.
Ekram Giri, Joint Secretary and spokesperson for the Federal Parliament Secretariat, informed that no information regarding the summoning of the session has been received from the government. "As of now, no information has been received from the government regarding the summoning of the session," Spokesperson Giri told Ratopati. "There is a constitutional compulsion to summon the session within 30 days of the final result announcement. Preparations might be underway."
The Office of the President has also stated that no recommendation for summoning the Federal Parliament session has been received from the government.
The Constitution also mandates that the election for the Speaker and Deputy Speaker must be completed within 15 days of the first meeting of the House of Representatives. Article 91, Clause (1) of the Constitution, under the heading Speaker and Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, states: "Members of the House of Representatives shall elect the Speaker and Deputy Speaker from among themselves within fifteen days from the date of commencement of the first meeting of the House of Representatives."
The Constitution stipulates that the Speaker and Deputy Speaker cannot be from the same party or the same gender. Therefore, even though RSP has a majority, they will not be able to nominate the Deputy Speaker.
Article 91, Clause (2) of the Constitution addresses the election of the Speaker and Deputy Speaker: "In conducting the election pursuant to sub-article (1), one of the Speaker and Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives shall be a woman, and the Speaker and Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives shall be representatives of different parties."
In the House of Representatives, RSP has 182 MPs, Nepali Congress has 38, CPN-UML has 25, CPN (Maoist Centre) has 17, Shram Sanskriti Party has 7, and Rastriya Prajatantra Party has 5 MPs. Mahabir Pun won as an independent candidate from Myagdi.
This specific news has been automatically translated by AI. As a result, there may be some inaccuracies or language errors.
