PM Oli was under intense pressure from the rival factions of the NCP led by former Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal. The move by Oli has been seen as a result of the pressure.
Shortly after the KP Sharma Oli-led Nepal government’s cabinet approved the dissolution of the parliament and sent it for President’s approval, Nepal’s President Bidya Devi Bhandari today dissolved the country’s parliament. The decision to dissolve the parliament was taken at an emergency meeting of the Cabinet this morning.
Elected in 2017, current Nepal’s House of Representatives has 275 members. The general election in the neighbouring country was due in 2022. However, President Bhandari, today declared that the national polls will now be held between April 30 and May 10 of 2021, ANI reported citing a statement from the President’s office.
“PM Oli was under pressure to withdraw an ordinance related to the Constitutional Council Act that he had issued on Tuesday and got endorsed by President Bidya Devi Bhandari the same day,” The Kathmandu Post reported today.
“Today’s Cabinet meeting decided to recommend the President to dissolve the Parliament,” Barshaman Pun, energy minister in PM Oli’s cabinet, had said after the meeting this morning.
PM Oli was under intense pressure from the rival factions of the NCP led by former Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal. The move by Oli has been seen as a result of the pressure.
In one of the many meetings that PM Oli held on Saturday as he tried to convince his rivals to back down, he met President Bidya Devi Bhandari at her official residence ‘Shital Niwas’ last evening.
The Oli government had issued an ordinance to give himself the power to make crucial appointments. The dissolution of parliament is seen as a precursor to a split in the party that had been piling pressure on him to withdraw the ordinance.
The party’s standing committee, on Wednesday, had passed a resolution that asked PM Oli to withdraw the ordinance. Mr Oli had agreed to comply at the committee’s meeting but later had other thoughts.
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