CPN-UML leader Ganesh Timilsina has been elected unopposed as Chair of the National Assembly after no other parties filed their candidacy for the post.

Proposed by UML leader Khimlal Bhattarai his candidacy was seconded by CPN (Maoist Centre) leader Dinanath Sharma and UML leader Suman Raj Pyakurel. The UML was allocated the position under a power-sharing deal with its ally Maoist Centre which secured the position of Speaker.

Timilsina, who was elected member of the Upper House from Province 4, is a deputy coordinator of the party in the province. The party picked Timilsena as its candidate for the position ahead of Parshuram Meghi Gurung and Bhattarai, among other aspirants.

The Nepali Congress, the only opposition in the NA, did not field its candidate clearing the way for Timilsina’s unopposed election to the post. “The official declaration will be made in an NA meeting on Wednesday,” said Bharat Raj Gautam, spokesperson for the Parliament-Secretariat.

The proposer and those who seconded his candidacy will put their views before senior-most lawmaker Tara Devi Bhatta, who is chairing the session, will announce his victory.

Timilsena will then be administered oath by President Bidya Devi Bhandari on Thursday and assume the office same day. This is the first time the country is practicing bicameral parliament after the parliamentary election in 1999. There was only single cameral parliament functioning while Constituent Assembly was in place twice in 2008 and 2013. 

Timilsina, who has been in the politics for more than four decades, had served a jail-term for four days during Panchayat regime. He was elected chair of Ramja VDC in Parbat in the local elections in 1991 and was elected the president of the District Development Committee four years later.