Nepal's CPN-UML party leader Dev Raj Ghimire was elected Speaker of the House of Representatives on Thursday, after a decisive vote in parliament, in which he received the backing of 167 lawmakers.
Ghimire was pitted against Nepali Congress lawmaker Ishwori Neupane. In the House of Representatives (HoR) meeting, 167 votes were cast in favour of Ghimire, 100 votes were cast against while a solitary lawmaker abstained from the vote to elect Ghimire as the Speaker.
Only 138 votes are required for a win in the 275-member lower house. “I declare the proposal to elect Ghimire as Speaker has been endorsed through a majority,” said the oldest parliamentarian Pashupati Shumsher Rana, who chaired the meeting as a Speaker.
CPN-UML, CPN (Maoist Centre), Rastriya Prajatantra Party, Rastriya Swatantra Party, Janata Samajwadi Party, Janmat Party, Nagarik Unmukti Party and independent MPs Amresh Kumar Singh, Prabhu Shah and Yogendra Mandal voted in favour of Ghimire.