KATHMANDU: President Bidya Devi Bhandari has invalidated both petitions registered by Prime Minister KP Oli and Nepali Congress (NC) President Sher Bahadur Deuba stake claiming for the post of prime minister.
The Office of the President in a statement issued on Friday midnight said neither Prime Minister Oli nor Nepali Congress President Deuba can be appointed Prime Minister.
President Bhandari has stated that the claims made by both aspirants have failed to meet the required provisions and as such, neither Oli nor Deuba can form a new government.
Based on the signatures and claims by both sides, the President’s Office has said that there is no concrete basis for both the claimants to get a vote of confidence from the Parliament as per clause (5) of Article 76 of the Constitution.
Therefore, both Oli and Deuba cannot be appointed as prime minister, the statement said.
According to the statement, since the signatures submitted by both the claimants have repeated, and that voices of dissent from the respective parties have been seen, clause (e) of Article 89 of the Constitution of Nepal may be attracted.
Likewise, both the ruling CPN-UML and the Janata Samajbadi Party have sent letters stating that action would be taken against lawmakers who had gone against the party to support the opposition’s claim, the statement added while invalidating both the claims.
Prime Minister Oli and NC President Deuba had staked their claims for the post of Prime Minister within the time limit given by President Bidya Devi Bhandari earlier on Friday.
Nepali Congress President Deuba had staked claim to be the prime minister with the signatures of 149 lawmakers.
He claimed by collecting signatures of Nepali Congress, CPN Maoist Center, UML’s Madhav Kumar Nepal faction and Janata Samajbadi Party’s Baburam Bhattarai and Upendra Yadav faction.
Likewise, Prime Minister KP Oli also staked a claim for the post by registering signatures of 153 lawmakers.
PM Oli had submitted the signatures of 121 UML lawmakers, and 32 MPs of Mahanta Thakur and Rajendra Mahato faction of the JSP.
Comment