KATHMANDU: The term of a House of Representatives (HoR) with a single party’s outright majority is beginning today (Thursday) for the first time in 26 years. Members elected in the March 5 election, which was held after the Ho R was dissolved in response to the demands of the Gen Z movement, are taking the oath of office and secrecy today.

In the 275-member HoR, the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) has secured a commanding majority of 182 seats. This is the first time any political party has won a single-party majority in an election since the 1999 House of Representatives. In 1999, the Nepali Congress had won a majority by securing 111 seats in the then 205-member HoR.

Although it was generally assumed that winning even a simple majority in a House of Representatives election held under a mixed electoral system would be difficult for any political party, RSP proved that assumption wrong by surpassing a clear majority and winning nearly two-thirds of the seats.

The Nepali Congress, which had been the largest party in the previous House of Representatives, has been reduced to 37 seats in the new parliament, while CPN (UML) holds 25 seats, Nepali Communist Party (NCP) 17, Shram Sanskriti Party 7, and Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) 5. Former minister Mahabir Pun, who ran as an independent candidate from Myagdi, will also be in parliament.

On Wednesday, President Ram Chandra Paudel administered the oath of the senior member to Nepali Congress lawmaker Arjun Narsingh KC at a ceremony held at the President’s Office, Sheetal Niwas. The constitutional provision is that the senior member performs the role of Speaker until a Speaker is elected in the House of Representatives.

On Wednesday, President Ram Chandra Paudel administered the oath of the senior member to Nepali Congress lawmaker Arjun Narsingh KC at a ceremony held at the President’s Office, Sheetal Niwas. The constitutional provision is that the senior member performs the role of Speaker until a Speaker is elected in the House of Representatives. KC himself will administer the oath to the newly elected lawmakers today.

Parliament Secretariat spokesperson Ekram Giri said preparations for the oath-taking ceremony of House of Representatives members were complete. A hall in the under-construction Federal Parliament Building at Singha Durbar has been prepared for the oath. “This time the oath-taking of lawmakers is being held in parliament’s new building. Since the building is not yet fully constructed, we have arranged a somewhat cramped space,” Giri said.

The oath-taking is being held in the under-construction building within Singha Durbar because the Federal Parliament Building in New Baneshwor was destroyed when arson was carried out during the Gen Z movement last September. The Parliament Secretariat had been renting the International Convention Center in New Baneshwor and operating it as the parliament building since the 2008 Constituent Assembly.

According to spokesperson Giri, 54 of the newly elected lawmakers have informed the secretariat that they will take their oath in their mother tongue.

Most of the lawmakers in this session’s House of Representatives have been elected for the first time. In the new parliament, 17 lawmakers are under 30 years of age. Similarly, there are 76 between the ages of 30 and 40, 88 between 40 and 50, 62 between 50 and 60, and 32 above 60 years of age. The youngest lawmakers are RSP’s Prashant Upreti, elected from Makwanpur-2, and Shram Sanskriti Party’s proportional representative Ruby Kumari, both of whom are 25 years old. The most senior member is Nepali Congress proportional lawmaker Arjun Narsingh KC, who is 78 years old.

The number of parties represented in the House of Representatives has decreased following this election. Only 6 political parties are represented in parliament. All of these parties have become national parties according to the criteria of one seat in the first-past-the-post category and a three percent threshold in the proportional representation category.

RSP senior leader Balendra Shah is scheduled to take the oath as Prime Minister at 12:34 PM on Friday. This will be the first time since the new constitution was promulgated in 2015 that a Prime Minister is being appointed under Article 76(1).

The previous House of Representatives had representation from 10 parties, of which only eight had received recognition as national parties.

After the lawmakers’ oath-taking, the country will get a new government on Friday (Mrch 27). RSP senior leader Balendra Shah is scheduled to take the oath as Prime Minister at 12:34 PM on Friday. This will be the first time since the new constitution was promulgated in 2015 that a Prime Minister is being appointed under Article 76(1). Shah is set to take the oath of Prime Minister as the leader of the parliamentary party of the political party holding a majority in the House of Representatives. He is yet to be elected as the leader of RSP’s parliamentary party. RSP has made preparations to elect him as party leader after the oath-taking of House of Representatives members on Thursday.

President’s Office spokesperson Ritesh Kkumar Shakya informed Nepal News that the President’s Office is making preparations for the Prime Minister’s oath-taking on Friday. “The work of putting up tents for the oath and sending correspondence to invitees has already been done. However, the formal letter for the oath has not yet arrived at the President’s Office,” he said.