CPN (Maoist Centre) leader Krishna Bahadur Mahara has been elected Speaker of the House of Representatives as no other person came forward to claim the post. An official announcement of the election will be made on Saturday.

Mahara became the lone candidate after the main opposition Nepali Congress did not field its candidate for the powerful position. His nomination was proposed by former Speaker and CPN-UML leader Subas Nembang while Maoist leader Dev Prasad Gurung seconded the proposal.

The election would be held at 1pm on Saturday if there were more than one candidate. The process now is Nembang proposing in Parliament that Mahara be elected the Speaker.

Oldest member of the Lower House Mahantha Thakur, who chairs the meeting, will announce Mahara’s election. “President Bidya Devi Bhandari will administer the oath to newly elected Speaker at 11am on Sunday,” said Manohar Bhattarai, general secretary at the Parliament Secretariat.

NC Spokesman Bishwa Prakash Sharma said his party believes that an impartial Speaker upholds the dignity of Parliament and the parliamentary practice. The party had stressed on Thursday that there should be consensus on choosing the Speaker candidate.

Elected minister and deputy prime minister several times, Mahara is among luckiest Maoist leaders. He has almost always got a powerful position since the erstwhile rebel party joined mainstream politics in 2006.

There were many contenders for the post in the party but Mahara, a close confidante of Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal, landed the post. He had the backing of coalition partner UML.

Born to a poor family at Dharapani of Liwang VDC-7 in Rolpa on 29 June 1958, Mahara had taught Maths and Science for 12 years before being elected a member of parliament in 1991 for the Samyukta Janamorcha.

The Maoist party on Friday decided to field Mahara for the post, based on an understanding between PM KP Sharma Oli and Dahal on Thursday.