KATHMANDU, Feb 28: The parliament secretariat has been asked to plan the election of speaker and deputy speaker of the House of Representatives and chairman and vice chairman of the National Assembly prior to the presidential election on March 13.
A meeting of all political parties elected to the federal parliament instructed the parliament secretariat on Wednesday to prepare the election schedule to be endorsed from the first meeting of the parliament on March 5.
The constitution has a mandatory provision for holding the election of speaker and deputy speaker within 15 days of the first meeting of the parliament. With the first meeting of the parliament convening on March 5, the speaker and deputy speaker of the lower house and chairman and vice chairman of the upper house must be elected by March 20.
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“We have instructed the parliament secretariat to prepare the election schedule for the speaker, deputy speaker, chairman and vice chairman soon,” said CPN (Maoist Center) National Assembly member Dinanath Sharma emerging from the meeting at the parliament building in New Baneshwar on Wednesday.
The parliament secretariat has been instructed to submit a draft of election calendar in the next all-party meeting scheduled for March 4 on the eve of the first meeting of the House.
“As the election schedule for president has already been fixed for March 13, we have suggested that it will be wise to elect other office bearers of the parliament prior to the presidential election,” said CPN-UML lawmaker Bhanubhakta Dhakal. He further informed that first House meeting is likely to fix the election date for the office bearers of the parliament, including the speaker.
Following the instruction, the parliament secretariat has expedited homework for the election of those posts, said spokesperson at the secretariat Bharat Gautam.
According to the leaders attending the meeting, the first parliament will also endorse the interim working procedure of the parliament. Leaders from UML, Nepali Congress, CPN (Maoist Center), Rastriya Janata Party Nepal and Federal Socialist Forum Nepal had attended the meeting convened by the parliament secretariat to discuss the business of the first House meeting.
The parliament secretariat has scheduled the oath-taking ceremony of newly-elected members of the federal parliament for March 4 at 4 pm for lower house and at 5 pm for upper house. Mahendra Raya Yadav of RJPN will chair the meetings of the lower house until the new speaker is elected while Tara Devi Bhatta of NC will chair the upper house.
