Nepal Parliament to elect new Speaker on Jan 26

Nepal's Parliament will elect its Speaker on Sunday, nearly three months after the post fell vacant.

The ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP) has decided to field its leader Agni Sapkota for the Speaker's position, which has remained vacant since Krishna Bahadur Mahara stepped down, following an attempt to rape allegation against him on October 7 last year.

The House of Representatives (HoR) on Monday published the schedule for electing the new Speaker. The election will take place at 3 pm on January 26, as per the notification.

The HoR meeting instructed the Parliament Secretariat's general secretary to fix the election date and publish the election calendar.

According to Article 91 (2) of the Nepal Constitution, the Speaker and Deputy Speaker should be from different political parties and gender.

There was a deadlock over electing the new Speaker as Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli and chairman of the ruling party Pushpa Kamal Dahal 'Prachanda' differed on their candidates for the post.

The deadlock ended after Prime Minister Oli backtracked from fielding former Speaker Subhash Nembang for the post and accepted Prachanda's choice -- Sapkota.

Meanwhile, main Opposition Nepali Congress has said it would not field a candidate for the Speaker post if it gets the post of Deputy Speaker.

Deputy Speaker of the House of Representative Shiva Maya Tumbahangphe, who had expressed interest for the post, resigned on Monday.

Her resignation comes a day after the ruling party backed Sapkota's candidature.