Parliament to elect Speaker tomorrow

Speaker is likely to be from Unified CPN-Maoist and Deputy Speaker from Rastriya Prajatantra Party-Nepal

Kathmandu, October 14

The Parliament today scheduled to conduct election for Speaker and Deputy Speaker on Friday after Speaker Subas Chandra Nembang and Deputy Speaker Onsari Gharti tendered their resignations to pave the way for election of their successors as per the transitional provision of the new constitution.

Parties can name consensus candidates till 3:00pm tomorrow for the two posts. If they fail to do so, the Parliament Secretariat will publish election programme to elect the Speaker at 3:00pm and Deputy Speaker at 5:00pm on Friday.

Nembang tendered his resignation to Gharti and Gharti to Nembang at a press meet in Singha Durbar. Following their resignations, senior-most member of the Parliament Laxman Rajbansi of Nepa: Rastriya Party chaired today’s Parliament meeting.

The new Speaker and Deputy Speaker should belong to different parties as per Article 299 (4) of the new constitution. The House moved the election process today as there should be re-election to the two posts within 20 days of the first meeting of the House after the promulgation of the new constitution.

Speaker is likely to be from Unified CPN-Maoist and Deputy Speaker from Rastriya Prajatantra Party-Nepal as per the understanding among the coalition partners. UCPN-M may pick between Girirajmani Pokharel or Onsari Gharti for Speaker’s post, but the party is yet to decide, said the party spokesperson Dinanath Sharma. RPP-N will pick from among Dilanath Giri, Bhaskar Bhadra and Kunti Shahi for the post of Deputy Speaker, said assistant spokesperson for the party Mohan Shrestha.

Standing Committee meeting of the UCPN-M held today discussed the model of party’s share in the government and the top posts, including that of the President and Speaker. According to Sharma, the SC would discuss the issues tomorrow as well. He, however, said the party leaders had given party Chair Pushpa Kamal Dahal the authority to name party’s candidates for these posts.

Sharma said Dahal wanted Krishna Bahadur Mahara to contest the post of Speaker but the latter was not keen on it. He said the party would choose between Krishna Bahadur Mahara and Top Bahadur Raymajhi as the Minister of Home Affairs.