Voting for the post of Deputy Speaker of the Federal Parliament (House of Representatives) is scheduled at 3 pm today.

Pushpa Bhusal of Nepali Congress and Bidya Bhattarai of CPN-UML have registered their candidature for the post of Deputy Speaker, which is vacant after the resignation of the then Deputy Speaker Shivmaya Tumbahangfe.

Based on the current number of 271 MPs in the House of Representatives, it seems that a majority of the existing number, i.e. 136 votes, is required to be elected as the Deputy Speaker. In the ruling coalition, there are 61 MPs from the Nepali Congress, 40 from the Maoist Center, 23 from the United Socialist Party, 20 from the Janata Samajwadi Party and 1 from the Rashtriya Janamorcha, while there are 98 MPs from the CPN-UML.