DHANGADHI, Jan 13: The election of Speaker in Sudurpaschim Province is uncertain.

As none of the candidates could get a majority in the voting held on Thursday, the time for a re-voting was fixed at 11 AM on Friday.

However, in the all-party meeting held in the morning, as no agreement could be reached on re-voting, the Provincial Assembly Secretariat has announced that the meeting has been postponed indefinitely.

Yuvraj Jaishi, information officer of the secretariat, said that the meeting of the provincial assembly has been postponed after there was no consensus in the all-party meeting.

According to the constitution, the members of the provincial assembly must select the speaker within 15 days of taking the oath.

In Sudurpaschim Province, the members of the Provincial Assembly took the oath of office and secrecy on December 30. So, the speaker should be selected by Jan 15.

Bhim Bhandari of the Maoist Center from the ruling alliance and Man Bahadur Rawal from the Nepali Congress-led alliance have nominated themselves for Speaker here. In Thursday's voting, none of the candidates could get the required majority votes.

Bhandari got 26 votes and Rawal got 23 votes, while one vote was invalidated. Although he participated in the meeting, UML's Chakra Malla was prevented from voting as he could not enter the provincial assembly building within the stipulated time, while Lakshman Kishore Chaudhary of the Nagarik Unmukti Party was absent.

 
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