KATHMANDU, JULY 13
The ruling alliance has decided to field Nepali Congress whip Pushpa Bhusal for the post of deputy speaker.
A meeting of the alliance attended by Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, CPN-Maoist Centre Chair Pushpa Kamal Dahal, and CPN (Unified Socialist) Chair Madhav Kumar Nepal held yesterday decided to back Bhusal for the post of deputy speaker. The ruling alliance, which had been ignoring calls for electing a deputy speaker, wants to fill the post when parliamentary and provincial polls are only five months away.
The post of deputy speaker has remained vacant since January 2020 when the then deputy speaker, Shiva Maya Tumbahangphe, resigned bowing to party pressure.
Article 91 (2) of the constitution stipulates that speaker or deputy speaker should be a woman and both should be from different parties. Keeping that in mind, the deputy speaker cannot be from the CPN-Maoist Centre as Agni Prasad Sapkota was in the CPN-MC before he was elected speaker.
A ruling alliance leader said the PM wanted to elect a deputy speaker to have majority in the Constitutional Council, which has a deputy speaker as a member.
As per Article 284 of the constitution, the Constitutional Council is headed by the prime minister. Chief justice, leader of the opposition, chair of the National Assembly, speaker, and deputy speaker are the members of the council that recommends nominees for chief justice and chiefs and officials of constitutional bodies in accordance with the constitution.
Meanwhile, the Parliament Secretariat today issued a notice about the deputy speaker's election. In accordance with the notice, lawmakers who want to contest election for deputy speaker will have to file their nominations between 11:00 am and 1:00 pm tomorrow.
The final list of candidates will be published at 1:30 pm tomorrow.
The House will give time to the proposer and the seconder of the candidate for deputy speaker on Friday, following which voting will take place the same day in case there are more than one candidate.
A version of this article appears in the print on July 14, 2022, of The Himalayan Times.
