KATHMANDU, DECEMBER 21

The seniormost member of the House of Representatives Pashupati Shumsher Jung Bahadur Rana has taken oath of office and secrecy.

He was administered the oath by President Bidhya Devi Bhandari at a ceremony in the Office of the President, in Sheetal Niwas today.

It is customary for HoR members to be sworn in by the seniormost member after s/he is sworn in by the head of state. The ceremony was attended by Vice-president Nanda Bahadur Pun, Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, Chairman of National Assembly Ganesh Prasad Timilsina, Acting Chief Justice Harikrishna Karki, and others.

According to Dashrath Dhamala, co-spokesperson of the Parliament Secretariat, based on citizenship certificate, senior member Rana was born on 9 December 1941.

On the basis of citizenship, Mahendra Ray Yadav of Samajbadi Party-Nepal is the eldest, but he refused his citizenship-based age and declared himself not eligible to take oath. When Rashtriya Janamorcha President Chitra Bahadur KC and Rana compared their citizenships, it was found that Rana was older than KC by one month and 26 days. KC was born on 2 February 1942.

There is a constitutional provision that if election of HoR speaker and deputy speaker has not been held or both posts are vacant, the seniormost HoR member shall preside over the meeting of the members present and he must administer oath to the other members.

Rana will administer oath to the newly elected members at the federal Parliament in New Baneshwor tomorrow at 1:00pm, informed the Federal Parliament Secretariat.

According to the constitution of Nepal, a member of the Federal Parliament must take oath in accordance with federal law before participating in the meeting of the House or any of its committees for the first time.

Altogether 275 members of the House of Representatives were elected - 165 in the first-pastthe-post system and 110 in the proportional representation system.

There is a constitutional provision that the speaker and deputy speaker must be elected from among the members of the House of Representatives within 15 days from the date of commencement of the first meeting of the House of Representatives.

A version of this article appears in the print on December 22, 2022, of The Himalayan Times.