A meeting of the House of Representatives (HoR) has started in the federal parliament building in New Baleshwar on Thursday.
Lawmakers from various parties are delivering their views in the meeting. The meeting is scheduled to elect the Speaker of the House of Representives today.
CPN (UML) leader Devraj Ghimire backed by the ruling coalition and Ishwari Neupane from the Nepali Congress are contesting the elections for the post of the Speaker.
Ghimire was proposed by UML Vice Chairman Subas Nemwang as a candidate for the post while his candidacy was seconded by Hitraj Pandey, Rajendra Lingden and Ravi Lamichhane.
Similarly, Neupane’s proposer is NC General Secretary Bishwa Prakash Sharma and her candidacy was seconded by leader Prakash Jwala of CPN (Unified Socialist).
To become Speaker of the House of Representatives, one needs 138 votes out of the assembly's 275 members.
A total of 144 MPs are in favor of Ghimire, with UML’s 78, CPN Maoist Center’s 32, Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP)’s 20 and Rastriya Prajatantra Party RPP’s 14.
The number of MPs supporting the Prachanda-led government is 169.
Ghimire was elected as a member of the House of Representatives from Jhapa 2, while Neupane is a proportional representation MP.
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