Parliament is considering three options to elect the Prime Minister, who will be the Head of State under the new Constitution that is in the making, authoritative sources told the Sunday Observer.
The legislators are deliberating if the PM should be elected under the conventional Westminster model, or if he should be directly elected in a people’s poll. The third option is for political parties to pre-nominate a PM, to whom they will be committed to after the election, the sources said.
Under the conventional Westminster model, an MP who is most likely to command the confidence of Parliament is elected as the PM. When voters directly elect the PM, a system of governance which was tested in Israel from 1996 to 2001, and ended in failure, the PM may not enjoy the majority support in the House.
Therefore, he will not be able to go ahead with government business. As a remedy to this flaw, the option to give a two-year period for the new PM during which time he cannot be voted out by a no-confidence motion, is being considered. But in such a case, the legislators are discussing the prospect of what would happen if the budget is defeated twice during that two-year tenure. A solution to this stalemate is yet to be agreed upon.