As per the new constitution, the parliament has to elect speaker and deputy speaker within 20 days of the start of the House session on October 2.
Sitting Speaker Subas Nembang and his deputy Onsari Gartimagar resigned their respective posts on Wednesday.
Likewise, the House has to elect new president and vice-president within 30 days from October 2.
"Discussions on nominating the candidates are under way but we have yet to finalize it," UML Deputy General Secretary Bishnu Poudel told Republica.
Prime Ministe K P Sharma Oli and other key leaders such as Madhav Kumar Nepal, Bamdev Gautam, Bidya Bhandari, Bhim Rawal, Ishwar Pokharel and Bishnu Poudel, among others, were present at the meeting held at Singha Durbar.
As per the latest understanding, leaders from the major ruling parties UML and UCPN (Maoist) have reportedly reached an understanding to elect president from the UML, speaker from the UCPN (Maoist), and deputy speaker and vice-president from Rastriya Prajatantra Party-Nepal (RPP-N) and Madhesi People's Rights Forum-Democratic (MPRF-D) respectively.
Earlier, these major forces including the largest party Nepali Congress (NC) had reached an understanding to elect president from the NC, prime minister from the UML. But the understanding didn't last as the NC didn't support UML's prime ministerial candidae KP Sharma Oli.
Poudel said the UML would still want to bring the NC into power-sharing arrangement for allocating the top posts and give continuity to the unity among the major political forces.
"We still want to give continuity to the unity among major political parties including the NC so that we can implement the new constitution and expedite rebuilding of earthquake-ravaged infrastructures effectively," said Poudel.
However, some other key leaders within the party don't see any possibility of sharing the top posts with the NC.
"NC has violated the past agreement and rewarding the same party with highest post can't be an appropriate step to establish a better political culture," said UML Standing Committee member Shankar Pokharel.
Leaders having knowledge about the ongoing negotiations said that UML is likely to field party vice-chair Bidya Bhandari or Nembang, who resigned from speaker's post on Wednesday, for the presidential post.
Since party chairman Oli, who is also the prime minister, reportedly wants to elevate Bhandari to the post of head of state, many see her chances high.
"She is a major contestant because a large section of society has suggested to the party leadership not to miss this opportunity to elect a woman as the head of the state," said Pokharel.
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