Delay in choosing a speaker in Far-West

Dhangadhi: The task of electing the Speaker in Far-West appears to be uncertain. The meeting of the Provincial Assembly, which was supposed to be held at 11 am today, has also been postponed. The Provincial Assembly Secretariat has withheld the notice of adjournment of the meeting until further notice is issued.

Thursday meeting was adjourned to re-elect the Speaker at 11 am today. In the election held on Thursday for the post of Speaker of the Provincial Assembly, the Speaker election could not be held as no candidate obtained the majority of the total number of members of the Provincial Assembly. 50 people participated in the election in the 53-member Sudurpaschim Provincial Assembly meeting.

Among them, 26 votes fell in favor of Bhim Bahadur Bhandari of the Maoist Center, the candidate of the ruling coalition, while Man Bahadur Rawal, the candidate of the Nepali Congress, got 23 votes. Senior member Shivraj Bhatt, who is presiding over the assembly, announced that both proposals were rejected as the total number of members of the state assembly did not reach the majority.

Bhandari, who is a candidate from the ruling coalition, was supported by the Maoist Center (11), UML (10), Nagrik Unmikti (7) and one MP from RPP. According to that he should have got 29 votes. In his voting, two MPs were absent and one vote was invalid.

Laxman Kishore Chaudhary of Nagrik Unmikti and UML MP Chakra Malla did not participate in the voting. One vote was void. Man Bahadur Rawal, who registered the nomination on behalf of the Congress, got 23 votes. He had the support of Congress (18), United Samajwadi (4) and Independent (one) MPs. The senior member adjourned the meeting till Friday morning. But so far the process of selecting the speaker is undecided.