Valley
President, VP election process under way
The Legislature-Parliament on Saturday started the process to elect the new President and Vice President as provisioned by the new constitution promulgated a month ago.Binod Ghimire
The Legislature-Parliament on Saturday started the process to elect the new President and Vice President as provisioned by the new constitution promulgated a month ago.
The meeting of Parliament chaired by Speaker Onshari Gharti set 4:30pm on Sunday as the deadline to elect the head and deputy head of the state in consensus.
As per the schedule published by the Parliament Secretariat, the parties can register their candidacy for the President and Vice President on the basis of a political consensus from
11am to 1pm on Sunday. The name of the candidate, if elected in consensus, will be announced at 4:30pm on the same day.
If the parties fail to pick the candidates unanimously, Parliament will go for the majoritarian process of selecting the top officials. Article 297 (2) of the Constitution of Nepal requires the selection of the head and deputy head of the state within a month of the commencement of the House session on the basis of a political understanding.
But if the parties fail to pick consensus candidates, Article 297 (3) envisions an election under the majoritarian process. The winter session of Parliament commenced on October 2. According to Speaker Gharti, the majority process of election will begin on Tuesday morning if there is no consensus.
The secretariat has set 10am to 1pm on Tuesday for candidate nomination for both the posts while those willing to withdraw their candidacy can do so by 2:30pm. According to the schedule, the final list of candidates will be announced at 3pm on the same day.
If there is only one candidate for each post, the secretariat will recommend their unopposed election the same day. In case of two or more candidates, election will be held for both the posts at 11am on Wednesday while the results would be announced at 5pm on the same day.
The country will get its second President and Vice President latest by Wednesday. Incumbent President Ram Baran Yadav and VP Paramananda Jha were elected in July 2008 and have already completed seven years in office. They have yet to resign from their posts.