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Krishna Bahadur Mahara (C), a leader of the ruling Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Center), waves as he was elected as the speaker of the House of Representative at the Parliament in Kathmandu, Nepal, on March 10, 2018. Krishna Bahadur Mahara was elected as the speaker of the House of Representatives, or the lower house of the parliament, on Saturday. (Xinhua/Sunil Sharma)

KATHMANDU, March 10 (Xinhua) -- Krishna Bahadur Mahara, a leader of the ruling Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Center), was elected as the speaker of the House of Representatives, or the lower house of the parliament, on Saturday.

A parliament meeting held Saturday afternoon elected Mahara as the speaker of the lower house of the Nepalese Federal Parliament.

Mahara was elected unopposed as he was the only candidate to file nomination for the post, a spokesman at the Federal Parliament said.

The new parliament speaker will be sworn in on Sunday.

Mahara served as the country's deputy prime minister with the in-charge of foreign affairs in 2016.

Last week, the first session of the Federal Parliament was held, more than three months after the Himalayan nation held provincial and federal parliament elections simultaneously in two phases in November and December last year.