Nepali Congress-led coalition intensifies talks with like-minded parties to form govt

Kathmandu: Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba's Nepali Congress-led five-party coalition, which is two seats away from a simple majority after securing 136 seats in the 275-member House of Representatives, has intensified negotiations with like-minded parties to form the new government.

Nepali Congress (NC) has emerged as the single largest party with 89 seats after the election commission allocated seats to all the political parties under the proportional voting system on Wednesday.

The other partners of the ruling alliance have together secured 47 seats - CPN-Maoist Centre (32), CPN-Unified Socialist (10), Loktantrik Samajwadi Party (4) and Rashtriya Janamorcha one.

The C. K. Raut-led Janamat Party, which secured only one seat in the House of Representatives (HoR) under the first-past-the-post category, got 5 seats under the proportional representation (PR) category, which means that the party will have a total of six members in the House.

Last week, Prime Minister Deuba met Raut at the PM's residence and discussed matters relating to forging cooperation in the days ahead, sources said.

If the Janamat Party backs the NC-led coalition, the ruling alliance will have the support of 142 lawmakers - four more than 138 required to form a government.

On Sunday, NC leader Ram Chandra Poudel said that the government to be formed now will provide political stability, good governance, development and employment in the village.

Meanwhile, former prime minister K P Sharma Oli-led CPN-UML has received the highest votes under the proportional voting system while the NC and CPN-Maoist Centre have secured second and third positions, respectively.

The CPN-UML has secured 34 seats under the proportionate voting followed by the NC with 32 seats and CPN-Maoist Centre with 14 seats. Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) has received 13 seats while Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP), Janata Samajwadi Party (JSP) and Janamat Party have received 7, 5 and 5 seats respectively.

After the allocation of proportionate votes, the opposition CPN-UML has 78 seats.

Similarly, RSP has secured 20 seats followed by RPP 14 seats and JSP 12 seats.

The Loktantrik Samajwadi Party has got 4 seats, Nagarik Unmukti Party 3 seats, Rastriya Janamorcha 1 seat, and Nepal Majdoor Kisan Party 1 seat in the HoR.

Five independent candidates have also made their way to HoR.

Now the parties will have to submit the list of candidates according to the number of seats they have received according to the guidelines of the Election Commission and according to the designated cluster.

In the 275-member House of Representatives, 165 were elected through direct voting, while the remaining 110 were elected through the proportional electoral system.

Elections to the House of Representatives (HoR) and seven provincial assemblies were held on November 20 to end the prolonged political instability that has plagued the Himalayan nation.