The ruling coalition has decided to field three candidates after the Electoral Commission ordered on Friday not to register the nomination of male candidates for the post of vice president.
Eight parties, including the Nepal Congress (NC), CPN (Maoist Center), Janata Samajwadi Party (JSP), CPN (United Socialist), Loktantrik Samajwadi Party (LSP), Janamat Party, Rastriya Janamorcha and the Nagarik Unmukti party have already decided to give the deputy post of JSP.
The Election Commission’s instruction meant Janata Samajwadi Party (JSP) parliamentary party leader Ram Sahay Prasad Yadav, who was elected as the JSP candidate on Thursday, could not become the common coalition candidate for vice president.
The meeting of 10 parties, including the Prabhu Sah-led Aam Janata Party, held in Baluwatar on Saturday morning, decided to submit nominations of three candidates, according to Janamat Party Chairman CK Raut.
JSP will feature a male and a female but the names have not been finalized yet, while Janamat Party will feature Mamata Jha. The top coalition leaders will meet again on Sunday to finalize a single candidate, according to Raut.
The CPN-UML chose Vice President Ashta Laxmi Shakya as the party’s vice-presidential candidate earlier on Saturday.
The party secretariat meeting decided to choose the veteran Shakya leader as its vice-presidential candidate.
UML chose a female candidate after the Election Commission ordered on Friday not to register the nomination of male candidates for the post of vice president.
The Election Commission meeting on Friday directed the Election Official’s Office to register the nomination of only women other than Khas-Arya. “The Constitution establishes that the gender of president and vice president must be different. The Election Commission has instructed accordingly,” Chief Election Commissioner Dinesh Thapaliya said. “The women of the Khas-Arya community are also unable to submit a nomination as Ram Chandra Paudel of the community was elected president yesterday.”
