If everything goes as planned, President Ramchandra Paudel will appoint KP Sharma Oli, the CPN-UML chairman, as prime minister on Sunday.
On Friday evening, after outgoing PM Pushpa Kamal Dahal lost the vote of confidence in the House of Representatives, Sheetal Niwas, the presidential palace, triggered a new government formation process as per Article 76 (2) of the constitution.
Since the Nepali Congress and the UML have submitted the signatures of 165 lawmakers, no other House member will contest Oli’s claim, setting him up for his fourth prime ministerial term.
On Friday night, Oli, together with top Congress leaders and some from his own party, visited the head of state to claim the country’s top executive post—well ahead of the Sunday 5 pm presidential deadline for a House member to claim leadership of a coalition government. In the 275-strong House of Representatives, the minimum number needed to form a government is 138.
According to UML leaders and Sheetal Niwas officials, the new prime minister’s appointment will be announced soon after the deadline elapses. The swearing-in is scheduled for 11:00 am Monday.
Mahesh Bartaula, chief whip of the UML parliamentary party, said the timing of the swearing-in had been slightly changed. “As we claimed, the President will appoint Oli the prime minister on Sunday, but the oath-taking ceremony will be on Monday,” he said.
First appointed the prime minister in October 2015 (until August 2016), Oli was in the high office from February 2018 to May 2021 and from May 2021 to July 2021.
Kiran Pokhrel, press adviser to Paudel, said the President’s timetable for appointing the new prime minister will be met.
Both the Congress and the UML are in homework to send the full lists of their ministers to the Oli cabinet by Monday so that they can be sworn in at the same event after the prime minister takes his oath. According to Congress spokesperson Prakash Sharan Mahat, a central work execution committee of the party on Saturday set the criteria for picking the ministerial candidates.
Earlier, the Congress and the UML were planning to convene the oath-taking ceremony on Sunday evening, soon after President Paudel appoints Oli the prime minister. However, based on suggestions from the top Congress leadership, it has been deferred till Monday, said an aide to the President.
After Dahal left the prime minister’s Baluwatar residence on Friday evening, the President invited political parties to form a new government under Article 76 (2) of the constitution. Article 76 (2) says the President appoints as prime minister a member of the House of Representatives who can secure a majority with support from two or more parties.
Oli and Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba jointly signed an application for the President to appoint the UML chief the new prime minister.
Along with Oli, Prakash Man Singh of the Congress and Bishnu Poudel of the UML will also take oath as deputy prime ministers with possible portfolios of defence and finance, respectively. However, the final division of the ministerial portfolios has yet to be settled by the two largest parties with the Congress tipped to head nine and the UML eight ministries.
The Congress may get portfolios like defence, foreign affairs, and urban development, and there could be a tradeoff between the new coalition partners on the ministries of energy, and physical infrastructure and transport.
The UML is likely to lead ministries like finance, tourism, and communication and information technology while tradeoffs are likely between the two parties on ministries like health, education, industry, agriculture, general administration, law, environment, land reform, women and children, sports, and labour.
As many as 15 new ministers will take the oath of office on Monday itself, a Congress leader said.
Singh, Arzu Rana Deuba (the spouse of Congress President Deuba), Ramesh Lekhak, Jeevan Pariyar, Ajay Chaurasiya, Binod Chaudhary, Chandra Bhandari, Pradeep Poudel, Dipak Giri, Dipak Khadka, Ain Bahadur Shahi, Hridayaram Thani, Arjun Narsingh KC, Ramnath Adhikari, Kishor Singh Rathour, and Tejulal Chaudhary are among the likely ministerial candidates from the Congress.
Citing the criteria, Mahat said the party will look at the qualification, contribution, inclusiveness and provincial representation while appointing ministers. “We will try our best to pick all ministers at one go so they can take the oath on Monday,” said Mahat.
But due to the multiple power centres in the party, Deuba is in a fix over whom to pick ministers, said an aide to the party chief. Deuba has sought recommendations from party leaders Shekhar Koirala and Gagan Thapa, among those considered Deuba’s rivals in the party.
According to a central committee member, the party will finalise its list of ministers by Sunday evening. “As per Oli’s wish, we will try to send the full list of ministers.”
Not much is known about the UML’s ministerial picks yet. The party leadership has the prerogative to select its quota of ministers, so “we have no idea”, a UML central committee leader said. “If any candidates have been agreed on, it has not been shared with us.”
Besides Poudel, Prithivi Subba Gurung, Yogesh Bhattarai, Padam Giri, Damodar Bhandari and Sunita Baral are on the tentative list, the UML leaders said.
In a statement on Friday evening, the President’s Office said, “After Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal failed to secure a vote of confidence under Article 100 (3), as informed by the Speaker of the House of Representatives, a member of Parliament commanding majority support from two or more political parties is invited to submit a claim for the post of prime minister by Sunday 5:00 pm, as per Article 76 (2).”
Although fringe parties, including the Janata Samajbadi Party (JSP), the JSP-Nepal, the Loktantrik Samajbadi Party, the Janamat Party and the Nagarik Unmukti Party have pledged support to the Congress-UML coalition, Oli presented his claim to the President with the backing of only the UML and the Congress.
As per the July 1 deal between Congress chief Deuba and UML chair Oli, the two parties will lead the government on a rotational basis until the next general elections in 2027.
In addition to a power-sharing deal, the two parties have agreed on several issues, including amending the constitution, in a seven-point agreement that has yet to be made public.
