NC, UML candidates file nominations

By A Staff Reporter,Kathmandu, Jan. 19: Two candidates – CPN-UML’s Devraj Ghimire and Ishwori Neupane of Nepali Congress- have filed nominations for House Speaker’s election scheduled for Thursday at the  Federal Parliament.  

The ruling alliance parties picked Ghimire for the election purpose after maintaining political consensus among them on Wednesday. The parties of democratic-left alliance have registered the name of Neupane as their nominee in the Parliament Secretariat.

Dr. Bharat Raj Gautam, General Secretary of the Parliament Secretariat, informed that UML lawmaker Devraj Ghimire registered his nomination on behalf of the ruling alliance parties. He was proposed for the post by UML leader Subas Nembang. And the ruling alliance party leaders Hitraj Pandey, Rajendra Lingden and Rabi Lamichhane seconded Nembang’s proposal during the process. 

Born in Taplejung, 67-year-old Ghimire had been a member of the National Assembly from 2056 to 2060 BS. He was elected as a member of the House of Representatives from Jhapa-2 in the November 20 election. UML Standing Committee member Ghimire had served for the party for the last 40 years. 

Similarly, the parties of democratic-left alliance also nominated NC leader Ishwari Neupane for that post. Neupane, a resident of Bhajani, Kailali, was proposed for the post by Nepali Congress General Secretary Bishwa Prakash Sharma. And Socialist Unified leader Prakash Jwala supported Neupane's candidacy proposal.

A meeting of the leaders of the democratic alliance--Nepali Congress, CPN (Unified Socialist) and Loktantrik Samajwadi Party had maintained a consensus to pick the name of Neupane for the Speaker election the same day. 

The parliament secretariat has scheduled the election of the Speaker of the House of Representatives on Thursday at 11 AM. 

On Thursday, there will be a House meeting where the members of the parliament will discuss the proposal and support they gave for the candidate to be elected as Speaker. After that, there will be an election of the Speaker. 

According to the constitutional provision, the House of Representatives has to elect the Speaker from among the members of the House of Representatives within 15 days of the first meeting of the Federal Parliament. 

Speaker or Deputy Speaker must be a woman and from a different party.NC issues whip 

Meanwhile,  NC Parliamentary Party has issued a whip to its members of the House of Representatives to cast vote to Ishwori Neupane, party’s candidate to the post of the Speaker and not to stay neutral.

NC chief whip Ramesh Lekhak issued the whip to cast vote in favour of the proposal to elect Neupane and against UML’s Dev Raj Ghimire. 

According to a press note issued by the NCPP office on Wednesday, the election of the Speaker will be held at 11.00 AM on Thursday morning.

Earlier, the PP meeting decided to pick Neupane as  the party candidate to the post of the Speaker.Before the PP meeting,  the NC held a meeting of its office-bearers under the chairmanship of party president Sher Bahadur Deuba. 

The meeting decided to hold talks with other political parties regarding the Speaker’s election.

NC president Deuba held meetings with CPN (Unified Socialist) chair Madhav Kumar Nepal and Janata Samajwadi Party-Nepal chair Upendra Yadav. They agreed to move together in the Speaker’s election. The NC leaders also discussed the issue with the lawmakers of the Loktantrik Samajwadi Party.