Kathmandu, July 24

The government today recommended the President to remove constitutional difficulties to allow the formation of a new government under Article 298 of the constitution.

According to Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Women, Children and Social Welfare CP Mainali, a meeting of the Cabinet recommended the President to remove constitutional difficulties in the formation of a new government.

Mainali said the government decided to invoke Article 305 to remove constitutional difficulties in the formation of a new government.

“Article 298 has a provision to move a no-trust motion against the prime minister. But it is not clear on forming a new government.

Therefore, the government recommended the President to remove difficulties in the article,” Mainali said and added that once the difficulties were removed by the President, a new government could be formed under Article 298.

Article 305 of the constitution stipulates that in case of any difficulty regarding the implementation of constitution until the commencement of the first session of the Federal Parliament, the President may, on the recommendation of the Cabinet, issue necessary orders to remove such a difficulty.

It adds that such orders must be submitted to the Legislature-Parliament or Federal Parliament, immediately after the issuance of such orders, for approval.

Senior Advocate Surya Dhungel said there should be extraordinary situation to invoke Article 305. Dhungel said the government should have consulted other parties before invoking the article as happened during Khil Raj Regmi-led Cabinet.

“At that time amendments were made to the constitution by invoking the clause to remove difficulties, which was wrong but was allowed on account of doctrine of necessity,” Dhungel said.

He said the government will have to inform the House within three days about its decision to recommend to the President to remove constitutional difficulties about the formation of a new government and after the PM’s notification, the House should endorse it within five days.

Senior Advocate Mithilesh Kumar Singh said the government’s decision to invoke Article 305 was not in conformity with the spirit of the constitution and parliamentary norms, as the government’s three budget related bills were defeated on Friday.

CPN-UML leader Subas Chandra Nembang, who is also a senior advocate, said criticism of the government’s move to invoke Article 305 was uncalled for.

According to Dhungel, the President can give parties seven days to form a national consensus government but she can also initiate the process within a day or two if she, after consulting parties, feels that there is no chance of forming a consensus government.

Dhungel said if the President gave a week to form a consensus government and such a government was not formed by that time then the Parliament could initiate the process to elect a new prime minister immediately.

Speaker Onsari Gharti Magar’s Press Adviser Babin Sharma said once the process to elect a new prime minister was initiated in the Parliament, new prime minister could be elected within 3-4 days.

This means a new PM could be elected by the House within the next 10 days.

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