Nepal President Bidya Devi Bhandari has suggested that the Election Commission pave way for the victorious parties to form a new government by presenting the results of the elections at the earliest, The Kathmandu Post has reported.
Claiming that the spirit of the constitution would be no obstacle to declaring the results, President Bhandari, in a meeting with election commissioners on Thursday, suggested that the EC could seek political consensus if necessary.
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The election commissioners, however, pointed to constitutional and legal hurdles to presenting the results of the House of Representatives election to the President.
As the parties are divided over whether the National Assembly is necessary to allot the proportional representation (PR) seats to the political parties, the EC’s stance is similar to that of the governing Nepali Congress whose President Sher Bahadur Deuba argues that he has legal and constitutional duties to accomplish before stepping down as the prime minister.
“We are not for withholding the results for long. If there is political consensus, we can announce the poll results by managing the legal hurdles,” Chief Personal Secretary Bhesh Raj Adhikary quoted Chief Election Commissioner Ayodhee Prasad Yadav as telling the President.
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Election commissioners had said they were under pressure from the parties and their sister organisations for publishing the poll results at the earliest.
Youth and student wings of the left alliance of the CPN-UML and the CPN (Maoist Centre) have been protesting against the EC demanding the results of PR election at the earliest. The President had also inquired about ways to administer the oath to newly elected provincial assembly members in the absence of provincial chiefs.
CEC Yadav said that the EC had already started preparations for the National Assembly vote while the government was yet to announce the date. The EC maintains that the mandatory 33 percent representation of women in the House of Representatives would be guaranteed only after formation of the National Assembly.
Nepal President Bhandari also hailed the EC for successfully holding the historic polls in a free and fair manner. The meeting was attended by four commissioners including Narendra Dahal, Ishwori Prasad Poudyal and Sudheer Kumar Shah.