Urmila Aryal of CPN (Maoist Center) has been elected vice-chair of the National Assembly unopposed on Monday.
Aryal has been elected unopposed after the main opposition Nepali Congress (NC) decided to not field its candidate against the common candidate of the ruling coalition.
Narayan Kaji Shrestha, parliamentary party leader of Maoist Center in the National Assembly, was the proposer and CPN-UML lawmaker Devendra Dahal and independent lawmaker Khimlal Devkota were the supporters.
The post was vacant since the term of the then vice-chair Shashi Kala Dahal expired a year ago.
CPN-UML has 16 lawmakers in the National Assembly, Maoist Center 15, NC 10, CPN (Unified Socialist) eight, Janata Samajwadi Party three, and Loktantrik Samajwadi Party and Rastriya Janamorcha one each. One is independent and three are nominated.
Election for one vacant post is scheduled to be held on Wednesday.
Aryal, who joined Maoist Center quitting UML nine years ago, was elected to the National Assembly one year ago. She was appointed minister for women, children and social welfare from UML in 2006.
Aryal, who is a standing committee member of Maoist Center, contested the 2013 and 2017 elections from Parsa.
