President Bidya Devi Bhandari has named Sher Bahadur Deuba of the Nepali Congress as the country’s next prime minister.
“As per Article 76 (5) of the constitution, the President has appointed Sher Bahadur Deuba as Prime Minister of the country,” Bhesh Raj Adhikari, the President’s chief personal secretary, told the Media.
Deuba’s oath of office and secrecy will be administered by the President’s Office at 6 p.m. Tuesday, he said.
On Monday, the Supreme Court overturned Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli’s May 21 decision to dissolve the House and ordered the President’s Office to appoint Deuba as the next prime minister, as requested in his petition.
The five-member Constitutional Bench ruled in a landmark decision that the rejection of Deuba’s claim to be appointed a prime minister with the support of 149 members of the 275-member House of Representatives under Article 76 (5) was unconstitutional.
By Tuesday evening, Deuba is expected to take the oath of office and secrecy, and form a small Cabinet.
Ministers who will be sworn in as members of the Cabinet have yet to be chosen. According to a senior Nepali Congress leader, President Deuba, and Chairman of the Nepal Communist Party (Maoist Center), Pushpa Kamal Dahal is meeting to discuss cabinet formation before he takes the oath of office.
On the condition of anonymity, he told the Post, “After the meeting is over, the names of new ministers will be announced.”
Source: The Kathmandu Post
