The Parliament Secretariat on Monday published the time table for the election of a new prime minister, which will be held on Wednesday.

As per the notice of the Parliament Secretariat, nominations can be filed between 11am and 4pm on Tuesday and a list of the nominations will be published at 4:30pm on Tuesday.

As per Article 298 (3) of the Constitution of Nepal, any member of the Legislature-Parliament can file his/ her candidacy for the post of the prime minister. Parliament then on Wednesday will start the process to elect the new prime minister at 11am.

Manohar Prasad Bhattarai, general secretary of the Parliament Secretariat, published the notice for the election of the prime minister on Monday following instructions from Speaker Onsari Gharti to make all the necessary preparations for the same.

The three-day process to elect a prime minister through election began on Monday after the seven-day deadline set by President Bidhya Devi Bhandari to form consensus government ended on Sunday.

The presidential call to elect consensus prime minister had followed Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli’s resignation on July 24 after his government was left without a majority in the wake of CPN (Maoist Centre)’s July 12 decision to withdraw support.

The Maoist Centre and the Nepali Congress had filed a no-confidence motion against PM Oli, but the latter announced his resignation on July 24, minutes ahead of the scheduled voting on the motion, which he was certain to lose.

The Office of the President earlier on Monday had sent a letter to Parliament, calling it to start the process to elect a new prime minister.

Dahal likely to face Nembang

KATHMANDU: CPN (Maoist Centre) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal looks all set to win the election  on Wednesday to become the next prime minister. In the 595-member Parliament, he will require 298 votes to win the prime ministerial election that will start at 11am on Wednesday. The Maoist Centre, the third largest party with 82 seats in Parliament, has the backing of the Nepali Congress, the largest party with 207 seats. The Maoist-NC alliance is most likely to get the support of the Madhes-based parties and other fringe forces to elect Dahal the new PM. A rough calculation shows there are around 366 votes in favour of Dahal. Meanwhile, the CPN-UML is likely to field its Deputy Parliamentary Party leader Subas Nembang against Dahal. Speaking at a programme in the Capital on Monday, UML leader Rabindra Adhikari claimed that the party would naturally field their deputy PP leader.