Kathmandu, December 11

Buoyed by the impressive win in provincial and parliamentary elections, CPN-UML Chair KP Sharma Oli and CPN-Maoist Centre Chair Pushpa Kamal Dahal will meet to discuss formation of the new government here tomorrow.

The left alliance of the UML and CPN-MC is likely to have comfortable majority. Party sources said Oli and Dahal would decide the next prime minister.  Sources said in all probability Oli would be the left alliance’s prime ministerial candidate. Since UML is the largest partner in the left alliance, Dahal is likely to support his candidature for the prime minister’s post.

The Election Commission is likely to count propositional representation votes by December 15 and submit the final election results to President Bidhya Devi Bhandari.  The Party Unification Coordination Committee formed by UML and CPN-MC, jointly led by Oli and Dahal, will meet tomorrow, said Dahal’s Private Secretary Jokha Bahadur Mahara.

Oli and Dahal addressed victory rallies today in their constituencies in Jhapa and Chitwan, respectively. They will return to Kathmandu tomorrow to discuss formation of the new government, Mahara said.

Both parties have said that they will unite after elections but they have not decided whether to unite before or after forming the new government. Sources said most probably unity between the two parties would be formalised only after formation of the new government.

According to the constitution, the new prime minister should be appointed within 30 days after announcing the final results of election to the House of Representatives.

The left alliance has won more than 100 out of 165 parliamentary first-past-the-post seats and is expected to have comfortable majority in the 275-member House after the PR votes are counted.

Article 76 (1) of the  constitution stipulates that the president shall appoint the leader of a parliamentary party that commands majority in the House of Representatives as the prime minister, and the Council of Ministers shall be constituted under his or her chairpersonship. If the UML and CPN-MC unite before forming the government, they can submit the name of their prime ministerial candidate to the president under this provision. Otherwise, they will have to claim the right to form government under Article 76 (2).

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