Kathmandu. On the recommendation of the Council of Ministers, President Vidyadevi Bhandari has dissolved the House of Representatives at midnight and announced mid-term elections. Elections for the House of Representatives will be held in two phases on November 11 and December 15.

Earlier, the cabinet meeting held at midnight had decided to recommend to the President to dissolve the House of Representatives as per Article 76 (7) of the Constitution and declare mid-term.

Before dissolving the parliament, President Bhandari had rejected the claim made by Oli and Nepali Congress president Sher Bahadur Deuba for the appointment of the prime minister.

Oli and Deuba made the claim after the president called for a vote of confidence in parliament to appoint a prime minister in accordance with Article 76 (5) of the constitution. Deuba had demanded for the appointment of the prime minister with the signatures of 61 MPs from his party Congress, 49 from the UCPN (Maoist), 26 from the UML Madhav Nepal group, 12 from the Jaspa Upendra Yadav group and one from the Rastriya Janamorcha. Oli, on the other hand, claimed that 121 UML and 32 JSP MPs would support him.