Ambar Bahadur Bista of Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) has been elected unopposed as the speaker of Koshi provincial assembly.
The Koshi provincial assembly meeting held on Tuesday afternoon elected Bista as the speaker. Main opposition CPN-UML also supported Bista’s candidacy after the ruling coalition parties in the province put him forward as speaker.
Deputy Speaker Srijana Danuwar announced that Bista was elected unopposed as he was the only candidate for the post of speaker.
Bista had filed candidacy for speaker with RPP lawmaker Bhakti Prasad Situala as proposer and another lawmaker Prem Raj Thamsuhang as seconder.
The 70-year-old Bista, who hails from Gauradaha, Jhapa, was elected lawmaker under the proportional representation (PR) electoral system. A central member of RPP, Bista has repeatedly advocated for abolition of provinces in provincial assembly meetings.
Bista is the third speaker of Koshi provincial assembly after Pradeep Bhandari of UML and Baburam Gautam of CPN (Maoist Center).
Bhandari served the full five-year term as speaker during the first term of the provincial assembly while Gautam was elected speaker during the current term of the provincial assembly.
The post of speaker had fallen vacant after Gautam resigned on August 1, 2023, to support Uddhav Thapa of Nepali Congress for chief minister.
