KATHMANDU: There are currently 271 lawmakers in the 275-member House of Representatives (HoR) at present.
Of the total lawmakers, incumbent ruling coalition’s leading party Nepali Congress (NC) has 61 lawmakers, the CPN-Maoist Center 49, the CPN United Socialist (CPN-US) 23, the Janata Samajbadi Party (JSP) 20, and the Rastriya Janamorcha one lawmaker.
A provision in the HoR regulations mandates a majority of the number of existing lawmakers to elect Deputy Speaker.
Accordingly, Deputy Speaker candidates must secure 136 votes as present total number of lawmakers stands at 271.
As per arithmetic, the ruling coalition commands 154 lawmakers while four seats of lawmakers are vacant.
In this scenario, the votes of the NC, the Maoist Center and the CPN-US are enough to elect a Deputy Speaker. The main opposition party, the CPN-UML, currently has only 98 lawmakers in the HoR.
There is strong likelihood of NC whip Pushpa Bhusal Gautam being elected the Deputy Speaker from the ruling coalition and UML’s Bidya Bhattarai returning home defeated.
However, the Loktantrik Samajbadi Party (LSP), which has 13 lawmakers in HoR, has yet to decide who to vote for. LSP lawmaker Chanda Choudhary earlier said a party meeting was to be held Friday afternoon to decide which candidate to support as Deputy Speaker.
On the other hand, the UML leaders claimed that the results could be reversed if the LSP and the JSP do not vote for the coalition candidate.
Given the JSP is on the verge of split, votes would not be cast openly for the alliance candidate, it is to be seen who will be elected Deputy Speaker.
Meanwhile, the process for election of Deputy Speaker is underway in the HoR.
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