Kathmandu, October 12

The Parliament is likely to hold its last meeting tomorrow.

Spokesperson for the Parliament Secretariat Bharat Raj Gautam said if the government did not change its mind at the last moment, then the House meeting scheduled for tomorrow would be the last meeting of the transformed Parliament.

As per constitutional provision, the term of the Parliament ends a day before the candidates file their nomination for the House of Representatives election.

Article 296 of the constitution stipulates that the term of Parliament will exist until January 21, but if an election is held to the House of Representatives prior to the expiry of that term, the Parliament continues to exist until the day before candidates file their nominations for election.

The Election Commission has set October 15 for filing candidacies under the Proportional Representation electoral system and October 22 for filing candidacy under the First-Past-the-Post electoral system.

Gautam said the Business Advisory Committee of the Parliament had agreed to hold the last meeting of Parliament tomorrow.

“Since parties have their representatives in the Business Advisory Committee, I assume that political parties are in agreement about holding the last meeting of the Parliament tomorrow,” Gautam said and added that if the Parliament did not convene its meeting after tomorrow, then that would virtually amount to automatic dissolution of the  Parliament’s term.

Gautam said there were two opinions about automatic expiry of the Parliament’s term with some saying its term would end on October 21, a day before the candidates filed their nomination for the FPTP electoral system; and others arguing that the term of the Parliament would end on October 14, a day before the candidates filed their nomination for the PR electoral system.

There was a general understanding among members of the Business Advisory Committee that the Parliament Secretariat would not hold any meeting of the Parliament after October 14 so as to avoid legal issues, Gautam argued.