The long-drawn dispute among the parties has come to an end on Friday after the government announced the date of National Assembly (NA) election for Feb 7.

An emergency Cabinet meeting held on Friday afternoon made the decision to this effect paving the paving for the formation of Upper House.

The decision came at a time when the left alliance of CPN-UML and CPN (Maoist Centre) had been demanding that the NA election should be held at the earliest for the handover of power.

The Election Commission (EC) on January 3 had suggested that the government hold the much-awaited NA election on February 8.

Chief Election Commissioner Ayodhee Prasad Yadav had made it clear that the results of the House of Representatives’ Proportional Representation election cannot be published before the National Assembly is elected.

The Assembly will have 59 members, with 56 representatives—eight from each province—elected by an electoral college comprising provincial assembly members and chiefs and deputy chiefs of municipalities and rural municipalities. The three other members will be nominated by the President on the government’s recommendation.

Similarly, the meeting has also decided to extend the tenure of Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) by one year. The decision will be endorsed by Monday’s Cabinet before sending it to the president for approval, Finance Minister Gyanendra Bahadur Karki said.

Earlier this afternoon, Prime Minister Sher Bahadur held a meeting with President Bhandari and discussed date of NA election and appointment of province chiefs among others.

PM Deuba, who is also the President of Nepali Congress, had on Thursday met senior leaders of five political parties represented in the Parliament and discussed the election for Upper House.

Earlier, the fate of the Upper House was in limbo after President Bidya Devi Bhandari put on hold the National Assembly election ordinance, forwarded by the Cabinet more than two months ago, due to the dispute among the parties over whether to adopt majority system and single transferable vote (STV) system for the election of upper house.

Later, President Bhandari authenticated the much-awaited ordinance on December 29.