The Office of the Head of Province and the Secretariat of Provincial Assembly has called for the swearing-in of the newly-elected lawmakers of Province 1 on December 26.

Gopal Prasad Parajuli, secretary of the provincial secretariat, said that the senior-most newly-elected lawmaker in the Assembly, Gayanand Mandal, 79, will take the oath of office and secrecy before the head of province Parshuram Khapung at 12pm on Monday.

Then, Mandal will lead the swearing-in for all other newly-elected lawmakers at 1:30pm in the Provincial Assembly building.

Article 179 of the Constitution provides that the members of the Provincial Assembly must take an oath in accordance with the provincial law before participating in the meeting of the Provincial Assembly or any of its committees for the first time.

Similarly, Clause (5) of Article 182 of the Constitution stipulates that in the event that there is no election of the Speaker of the Provincial Assembly or the Deputy Speaker of the Provincial Assembly or when both positions are vacant, the chairmanship of the Provincial Assembly meeting shall be held by the senior member in terms of age.

According to Article 19 of the 2018 Act on Remuneration and Benefits of Officials and Members of the Provincial Assembly, members of the Provincial Assembly must take an oath before the person who presides over the Provincial Assembly before participating in the meeting of the Provincial Assembly or any of its committees for the first time. However, according to Article 182(5) of the Constitution, the member presiding over the assembly must take an oath before the head of the province.

According to Article 183 of the Constitution, the provincial head must convene the session of the Provincial Assembly within 20 days of the announcement of the final result of the elections.

Narendra Shrestha, acting secretary of the Office of the Head of Province, said that discussions are underway to convene the first session of the assembly meeting by January 2 next year.

In the 93-member Assembly, CPN-UML has secured 40 seats, Nepali Congress 29, CPN (Maoist Centre) 13, RPP 6, CPN (Unified Socialist) 4 and Janata Samajbadi Party 1.