CPN-UML has picked Vice-chair Ashta Laxmi Shakya as the party’s candidate for vice-president.
The party’s secretariat meeting held on Saturday has decided to pick veteran leader Shakya as its vice-presidential candidate, according to UML leader Pradeep Gyawali.
UML has picked a female candidate after the Election Commission on Friday instructed to not register nomination of male candidates for the post of vice-president.
The meeting of Election Commission on Friday instructed the Office of Election Officer to register nomination of only non-Khas-Arya women. “The Constitution states that the gender of president and vice-president should be different. The Election Commission has instructed accordingly,” Chief Election Commissioner Dinesh Thapaliya told Setopati. “Women from Khas-Arya community also cannot file nomination as Ram Chandra Paudel from the community was elected president yesterday.”
The Election Commission’s instruction meant that Janata Samajwadi Party (JSP) parliamentary party leader Ram Sahay Prasad Yadav, who was picked as JSP’s candidate on Thursday, could not become the common coalition candidate for vice-president.
Eight parties including Nepali Congress (NC), CPN (Maoist Center), Janata Samajwadi Party (JSP), CPN (Unified Socialist), Loktantrik Samajwadi Party (LSP), Janamat Party, Rastriya Janamorcha and Nagarik Unmukti Party have already decided to give the post of vice-president to JSP.
The coalition is again meeting on Saturday to finalize the candidate.
