President Bidya Devi Bhandari has summoned the first session of Federal Parliament on March 5.

President Bhandari took the decision as recommended by Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli. The President’s Office said in a statement that the first meetings of the House of Representatives (HoR) and the National Assembly were scheduled on the PM’s recommendation as per Article 93 (1) of the Constitution of Nepal that requires the meeting to be held within 30 days of the publication of final election results.

Both the Houses will meet separately at 4pm in two halls at the Baneshwor-based International Convention Centre. Since the speaker of the Lower House and chairperson of the Upper House have yet to be elected, the oldest member of the Houses will chair the meetings. Nepali Congress President and former prime minister Sher Bahadur Deuba is the oldest member in the HoR.

The HoR has 275 members—165 under the first-past-the-post and 110 under the proportional representation categories—elected through the polls held in two phases on November 26 and December 7. The NA has 59 members, 56 of them elected through the polls held on February 7. The three others have yet to be nominated.

“Top leaders of the major parties will address the first meeting though we are yet to set other agendas,” said Bharat Raj Gautam, spokesperson for the Parliament Secretariat. Lawmakers will take their oath prior to holding the House sessions. The CPN-UML and the CPN (Maoist Centre), which fought the elections by forming an alliance, command a comfortable majority in the Lower House and have a two-thirds majority in the Upper House.

The NA has been elected for the first time since 1999. Nepal had a unicameral legislature since the Constituent Assembly was elected in 2008. The CA, primarily tasked with writing the constitution, doubled as the Legislature-Parliament.

The first important business at the HoR will be tabling a motion of confidence in Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, who has the backing of the Maoist Centre. The House will then elect the Speaker and deputy Speaker while the Assembly picks its chair and vice-chair within 15 days of the first meeting.