Nepali Congress (NC) is set to get the post of deputy speaker of House of Representatives (HoR).
NC leader Min Bahadur Bishwokarma has said that the ruling coalition has agreed to give the vacant post to the grand old party. Speaker Agni Sapkota was elected HoR member on a CPN (Maoist Center) ticket.
Bishwokarma has added that election for the vacant post of National Assembly vice-chairman will also be held soon but did not reveal the date of election.
The Federal Parliament Secretariat has already published a notice stating that election for deputy speaker will be held on Friday. Candidacy for the post will have to be registered on Thursday.
The post of deputy speaker is vacant since resignation of the then deputy speaker Shiva Maya Tumbahangphe before election of Agni Sapkota as speaker in January 2020 as she and Sapkota both came from the then ruling CPN. The Constitution requires House speaker and deputy speaker to come from different parties.
Lack of deputy speaker has been creating problems particularly in the Constitutional Council in the intervening period.
The Constitutional Council chaired by the prime minister (PM) includes chief justice (CJ), House speaker and deputy speaker, National Assembly chairman and the main opposition leader.
The government has been widely slammed including from within ruling Nepali Congress (NC) after it registered a bill in the National Assembly to amend the act related to the Constitutional Council in a way that appointments at constitutional bodies can be made by just three members of the Constitutional Council instead of filling the long-vacant post of deputy speaker.
The ruling coalition now has opted to hold election for deputy speaker following the criticism.
