Jubilee Post News & Views
- Nepal crisis: parliament dissolved
- President endorses Oli’s recommendation
Jubilee News Desk
Nepal Communist Party Standing Committee has decided to propose disciplinary action against Prime Minister Khadga Prasad Sharma Oli, who recommended dissolution of the parliament after an impasse over an executive order, issued a week before.
The proposal will be taken to the Central Committee meeting scheduled for Tuesday, said a member. A Standing Committee meeting of the Nepal Commmunist Party has decided to recommend disciplinary action against party chair and Oli.
“A proposal to this effect will be taken to the meeting of the Central Committee scheduled for Tuesday,” Pampha Bhusal, a Standing Committee member, said. The decision of the Standing Committee meeting, which was skipped by Oli and some other members loyal to him, took place in Baluawatar on Sunday evening, hours after President Bidya Devi Bhandari dissolved the House of Representatives on the recommendation of the Oli Cabinet.
The Standing Committee has not made it clear what kind of action it is proposing against Oli. The decision memebrs said will be taken on Tuesday.
Oli’s move of dissolving House comes on the heels of a deepening crisis in his Nepali Communist Party where he has slid into the minority with the opponent faction led by Pushpa Kamal Dahal, Madhav Nepal and Jhala Nath Khanal demanding his resignation for failing on the governance front and to abide by party decisions.
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In the 44-member Standing Committee, the Dahal-Nepal faction controls the majority. Oli was elected prime minister in February 2018 after the alliance of his CPN-UML and Dahal’s CPN (Maoist Centre) was handed a majority in the 2017 elections. The two parties had merged in May 2018 to form the Nepal Communist Party.
In November 1994, then prime minister Girija Prasad Koirala of the Nepali Congress had dissolved the House. After that, then CPN-UML’s Manmohan Adhikari had formed a minority government. But Adhikari too had attempted to dissolve the House, only to be challenged at the Supreme Court which restored the Parliament.
What the constitution say
Experts said there is no constitutional provision for Oli to dissolve House. They said House can be dissolved before its five-year term ends only in case of a hung parliament but Nepal Communist Party has nearly two-thirds majority.
The Constitution of Nepal promulgated in 2015 does not have a clear provision for House dissolution. Article 85 (1) states that unless dissolved earlier pursuant to this constitution, the term of the House of Representatives shall be five years.
Since it was established in 2018 following elections under the new constitution in November-December 2017, the House of Representatives has not been dissolved earlier, its term shall be five years.
