KATHMANDU: Elections for Nepal’s National Assembly, also known as the Upper House of the Federal Parliament, will take place on Feb.8, authorities announced on Saturday.

An emergency meeting of the Council of Ministers presided over by Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba made the decision as per the recommendation of the Election Commission, Commerce Minister Min Bishwakarma told the media.

The decision has come nearly a week after President Bidya Devi Bhandari approved the National Assembly Act to pave the way for holding the elections, reports Xinhua news agency.

The National Assembly will have a total of 59 members.

Of them, 56 will be elected by an electoral college comprising assembly members of the seven provinces and chiefs and deputy chiefs of municipalities and rural municipalities.

Three will be nominated by the President as per the recommendation of the government.

The decision to hold the National Assembly elections comes after Nepal concluded elections to the House of Representatives, the lower house, and Provincial Assembly simultaneously in two phases on Nov.26 and Dec.7, 2017.

Earlier, a meeting of five major political parties called by Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba to resolve the impasse regarding elections for the formation of the National Assembly ended inconclusively on Friday.

Deuba had called the meeting of the Nepali Congress, CPN-UML, CPN (Maoist Centre), Rastriya Janata Party-Nepal (RJP-N) and Sanghiya Samajwadi Forum Nepal (SSFN) at his official residence in Baluwatar in the morning.