By Our Reporter
CPN-UML chairman KP Sharma Oli, who dissolved the House of Representatives unconstitutionally twice, has revealed his ill intention of disrupting the House proceeding till elections.
He recently disclosed his intention in Jhapa that his party would continue to disrupt the House till the elections. His remarks were obviously irresponsible as several important bills are pending in the parliament, but Oli, to meet his petty interest and to shorten the term of the lawmakers who broke the UML and formed a new party, wants to obstruct the House.
Obviously, his activities while serving as the prime minister and now as the main opposition leader, seem to be directed to thwart the existing political setup. It is evident from his every move.
All the political parties as well as a few of those within his party came together to safeguard the current political set up terming his step to dissolve the House as a regressive move. The faction in the UML that stood against “regression” has now formed CPN (Unified Socialist) although 10 leaders of the group remained in UML at the 11th hour. Oli wants the position of the lawmakers who are now in the Madhav Kumar Nepal led CPN (Unified Socialist) to be scrapped. He accused Speaker Agni Sapkota of not dismissing their membership and his party obstructing the House against the Speaker. But in reality, he intends not to let the parliament which he dissolved twice to function.
On the other hand, the ruling parties have no option but to continue the session amid obstruction. Now the government has planned to hold the local level elections by May, which means the parliamentary elections will be held only in November next year.
Again, Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba is under pressure to endorse the Millennium Challenge Corporation pact from the House, and Oli has taken the pact as a tool to breach the present alliance of the NC, Maoist Centre and the CPN (Unified Socialist). If the MCC bill is tabled, the parties in the ruling alliance have no option but to vote in favour of this to keep the alliance intact. And if the alliance is broken, the political future of the two communist parties will become uncertain.
Thus, Oli wants to make the parliament dysfunctional or breach the present ruling coalition.
National Assembly election, UML may lose more seats
The government has decided to conduct National Assembly elections in all seven provinces of the country, on January 26, 2022, to elect one-third of lawmakers in the 59-member body.
The term of 20 lawmakers of the Upper House is expiring on March 4, 2022. Of the 20 lawmakers, 19 will be elected and one will be nominated by the President.
A provision in the Constitution has it that the elections must be held 35 days before the term expires. Therefore, the Election Commission had told the government to decide a date that is earlier than January 29 for the polls. The tenure of as many as one-third of the members of the National Assembly, including that of Vice-Chairperson Sashikala Dahal is going to end in March.
The term of eight lawmakers from the CPN-UML, four each from the CPN (Unified Socialist) and CPN (Maoist Center), and three from Nepali Congress (NC) are expiring this time. They include Agam Prasad Bantawa Rai, Udaya Sharma Poudel, Kaita Bogati, Khim Kumar BK, Chakra Prasad Senehi, Jeevan Budha, Dhriga Narayan Pandey, Thagendra Prakash Puri, Taradevi Bhatta, Dinanath Sharma, Nainkala Ojha, Radhe Shyam Adhikari, Ram Lakhan Chamar, Shanti Kumari Adhikari, and Sher Bahadur Kunwar.
Provincial assembly members, mayors and deputy mayors, and chairmen and vice-chairmen of rural municipalities are the voters in the election of the upper house members. As the CPN-UML has divided, it is likely to lose all eight seats as the ruling coalition parties are preparing to file their common candidates.
Earlier, the CPN-UML had won 27 seats in the Uupper House in the election in 2017. Likewise, NC had won 13, CPN (Maoist Center) 12, while the Rashtriya Janata Party Nepal and the Federal Socialist Forum won two seats each.
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