Newly elected National Assembly Chairman Narayan Dahal.
CPN (Maoist Center)’s lawmaker Narayan Dahal has been elected as the new chairman of the National Assembly.
Dahal garnered votes of 39 members of parliament (MPs) against 17 votes received by his rival Yubara Sharma of Nepali Congress in the National Assembly elections held today.
The NA has a total of 59 lawmakers including chairperson and deputy chairperson. Twenty-nine votes were required to win the elections of the NA chairperson.
“A total of 56 MPs cast votes. Of them, 39 cast votes in favor of Narayan Dahal. Yubaraj Sharma of Nepali Congress received only 17 votes. Since Dahal received a majority of votes, he has been elected as the new chairman of the National Assembly,” announced Urmila Aryal, the deputy chairperson of the NA, who chaired the meeting today.
The new ruling coalition comprising the UML, Maoist Center, RSP, JSP, and Unified Socialist had jointly fielded Dahal for the post. The new coalition has 39 lawmakers.
Similarly, the main opposition Nepali Congress in alliance with Loktantrik Samajbadi Party (LSP) had fielded Sharma. The alliance had 17 MPs including 16 NC lawmakers. One MP remained neutral.
Maoist Center’s Gopi Bahadur Sarki Achhami had proposed Dahal as the candidate for the post of chairman while his proposal was seconded by CPN (UML)’s Debendra Dahal, CPN (Unified Socialist)’s Beduram Bhusal and Janata Samajbadi Party’s Mohammad Khalid.
Similarly, NC’s Ananda Prasad Dhungana had proposed Sharma as the candidate for the post and his proposal was seconded by NC leader Kiran Babu Shrestha and Shekhar Kumar Singh of LSP.
Earlier, when the seven-party alliance was intact, the NC was making preparations to field Krishna Prasad Sitaula for the post but later nominated Sharma following the dissolution of the previous alliance.
Both the Maoist Center and the NC claimed for the post. After both parties did not budge from their stances, the Maoist Center formed a new coalition with the CPN (UML) with the understanding that the post of the National Assembly chairman would go to the Maoist Center. Dahal is the cousin of Prime Minister Prachanda.
The National Assembly will next meet at 1.09 pm on March 13.
