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Ram Chandra Paudel of Nepali Congress was elected on Thursday as the President of Nepal, ANI reported. Paudel secured 33,802 votes while his rival Subash Chandra Nembang of the CPN-UML secured 15,518 votes, the Election Commissioner said.
“Hearty congratulations to my friend Ram Chandra Poudelji for being elected as the President,” Nepali Congress chief Sher Bahadur Deuba tweeted.
The tenure of the current president, Bidya Devi Bhandari, will end on March 12. The term of office of the President is for five years and an individual can be elected to the post for only two terms.
Ahead of the presidential election, Poudel expressed confidence that the lawmakers would elect him.
“I am fully confident that the members of the federal parliament and provincial assemblies will vote for me. I believe that they will make the right judgment of my long struggle,” PTI quoted the 78-year-old as saying.
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The run-up to the election saw a high voltage face-off between the two former speakers of the House of Representatives. Paudel was backed by the eight-party alliance led by Prime Minister Prachanda and was widely expected to sail through.
Last month, former prime minister KP Sharma-led CPN-UML, Nepal’s second largest party in Parliament, withdrew its support to the Prachanda government following differences over backing Paudel for the presidential poll.
In Nepal, the post of president is largely ceremonial. However, lately there has been a tussle among Nepal’s political parties for the post owing to the discretionary powers the Constitution accords to the post.
Presidential Election In Nepal
This was the third presidential election in Nepal since the country became a republic in 2008.
Nepal, which had become a constitutional monarchy by 1990, got its first president in 2008, two years after the historic People’s Movement got the mandate to restore democracy.
The elected Constituent Assembly adopted the interim constitution in 2007, removing all powers of the king. Dr. Ram Baran Yadav became the Republic of Nepal’s first president. Yadav was succeeded by Bidya Devi Bhandari, who was the first President elected by Nepal’s Parliament with its Constitution promulgated in 2015. She was re-elected in 2018.
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