Thiruvananthapuram: The election for the Speaker and Deputy Speaker of the 16th Kerala Legislative Assembly will be held at 9.00 am on Friday. The Congress has selected senior leader Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan as Speaker and Shanimol Osman as Deputy Speaker. If elected, Osman will become only the second Muslim woman to hold the post, after Nabisath Beevi in 1960. Other candidates include A C Moideen (LDF) and B B Gopakumar (NDA).

MLAs will cast their votes using ballot papers in a booth near the Speaker’s seat, marking their choice with a multiplication symbol. Completed ballots will be placed in a box on the Speaker’s table. Votes will be counted under the supervision of the Assembly Secretary, in the presence of polling agents from all three fronts.

After the results are declared, the newly elected Speaker will be escorted to the chair by the Chief Minister and the Leader of the Opposition, and members will speak in support of the Speaker. Pro-tem Speaker G Sudhakaran will oversee the entire voting and counting process.

The first session of the 16th Kerala Assembly concluded on Thursday, with Sudhakaran administering the oath of office to the newly elected MLAs. A former CPM leader who contested the elections as a Congress-backed independent, Sudhakaran was sworn in as Pro-tem Speaker during a brief ceremony at Kerala Lok Bhavan on Wednesday.

The Assembly comprises 102 UDF MLAs, 35 LDF MLAs, and 3 NDA MLAs. The BJP, which drew a blank in the 2021 assembly elections, has made a historic comeback, winning three seats, its highest ever in the state.