National Assembly Chairman Ganesh Timilsina and Home Minister Ram Bahadur Thapa will serve their full six-year tenure in the Upper House while Finance Minister Yubaraj Khatiwada will retire after two years as their terms were decided by drawing lots on Monday.

The Parliament Secretariat used the lottery method to determine the two-, four- and six-year terms of the 59 NA members. Article 86 (3) of

the Constitution of Nepal states that the office of one third of the members of the National Assembly expires in two years.

Nineteen members of the Upper House will serve for two years while 20 each will be in office for four years and six years, respectively.

Elections will be held for 19 seats after the first lot retires in February 2020.

Fifty-six members of the House were elected—eight each from the seven provinces—by an Electoral College while three others including Khatiwada were nominated by the government.

Finance Minister Khatiwada’s membership will expire 20 months from now. “There is no legal hurdle for him to be nominated again if the government so wishes,” NA Secretary Rajendra Phuyal told the Post. To serve as a minister, one has to be a member of the federal parliament or elected member within six months of assuming the responsibility.

MPs from the main opposition Nepali Congress and the Rastriya Janata Party-Nepal were the most unlucky ones as seven of the 13 NC lawmakers picked two-year terms while the two RJP-N members had the same fate.

Among the 42 Nepal Communist Party (NCP) MPs, only nine will have two-year tenures. The NCP, NC, RJP-N and the Sanghiya Samajbadi Forum-Nepal have representation in the NA.