Inaugural session of HoR ends with election of Speaker and Deputy

Kathmandu, April 11: The first session of the House of Representatives, elected by the March 5 general elections, ended on Friday. The first session of the lower house elected a Speaker and a Deputy Speaker.

Dol Prasad Aryal of the ruling Rastriya Swantantra Party was elected the Speaker of the House of Representatives unanimously while Rubi Kumari Thakur of Shram Sanskriti Party defeated RPP's candidate Saraswati Tamang to be elected the Deputy Speaker. The 26-year-old Thakur was supported by RSP as well as by the Nepali Congress and Nepali Communist Party.

The House of Representatives met six times in six days in the first session. A total of 10 hours and 50 minutes of parliamentary function were performed. On Friday, the last day of the session, President Ramchandra Paudel addressed the joint meeting of both houses—the HoR and the National Assembly.

As the newly elected members of parliament took the oath of office and secrecy at the newly constructed Parliament Building in Singha Durbar, Balendra Shah, a senior leader of the Rastriya Swatantra Party was appointed as the Prime Minister. The RSP won almost a two-thirds majority in the House of Representatives elections. 

“The sessions in both Houses have ended in a cordial atmosphere in a short period of time. The Lower House has received its leadership. Members have been nominated to different thematic committees. There is no immediate business in the committees but there may be work on monitoring, evaluating, and necessary guidance on the work of thematic ministries and the implementation of laws,” Spokesperson of the Federal Parliament Ekram Giri told RSS. “The meetings of the relevant committees after the selection of the committee chairs will take the necessary decisions on these matters.”

Members have been nominated from both Houses to the Parliamentary Hearing Committee and the State Directive Principles, Policies, and Responsibilities Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Committee, which are joint committees of the House of Representatives and the National Assembly and the work of these committees is expected to gain momentum in the next few days.

The session also saw members of the HoR being nominated to various committees including the Finance Committee, International Relations and Tourism Committee, Consumers and Commerce and Labour Consumer Welfare Committee, Law, Justice and Human Rights Committee, Agricultural Cooperatives and Natural Resources Committee, Infrastructure Development Committee, Women and Social Affairs Committee, State Affairs and Good Governance Committee, Education, Health and Information Technology Committee, and Public Accounts Committee. 

The National Assembly members have been divided among the Development, Economic Affairs and Good Governance Committee, a Legislative Affairs Committee, a Public Policy and Delegated Legislation Committee, and a Federal Strengthening and National Concerns Committee. (RSS)