Nepal to hold national assembly poll on Feb 8

Elections for Nepal’s national assembly, also known as the upper house of the federal parliament, will take place on February 8, authorities announced yesterday.An emergency meeting of the council of ministers presided over by Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba made the decision as per the recommendation of the election commission, Commerce Minister Min Bishwakarma told the media.The decision has come nearly a week after President Bidya Devi Bhandari approved the National Assembly Act to pave the way for holding the elections, reports Xinhua news agency.The national assembly will have a total of 59 members. Of them, 56 will be elected by an electoral college comprising assembly members of the seven provinces and chiefs and deputy chiefs of municipalities and rural municipalities. Three will be nominated by the president as per the recommendation of the government.The decision to hold the national assembly elections comes after Nepal concluded elections to the house of representatives, the lower house, and provincial assembly simultaneously in two phases on November 26 and December 7, 2017. The alliance of the two leftist parties – the communist UML and former Maoist rebels, led respectively by former prime ministers, K P Sharma Oli and Pushpa Kamal Dahal – won a vast majority of seats in the lower house of parliament in the November and December vote.It also won a majority in six out of the seven newly created state assemblies at the provincial elections held at the same time.Nearly 70% of some 15mn eligible voters turned out to vote in the two-phase vote, some walking for hours in the snow in remote Himalayan villages to cast their ballots.The new government is expected to be formed under the leadership of Sharma Oli, for at least two-and-a-half years. After that, the remaining two-and-a-half years would be completed by Dahal.