Bidhya Bhandari elected first female president

KATHMANDU, Oct 28: CPN-UML Vice-Chairman Bidhya Devi Bhandari has been elected as second and first female president of Nepal garnering majority votes in the election held at parliament on Wednesday.

Bhandari received 327 out of 549 votes cast. Her closest contestant Kul Bahadur Gurung of the Nepali Congress (NC) received 214 votes. 48 lawmakers were absent during voting to elect new president.

Bhandari’s victory was almost certain as 12 ruling parties including the third and fourth largest parties — UCPN (Maoist) and Rastriya Prajatantra Party-Nepal (RPP-N) — had pledged their support.

Voting for new president concludes, 549 lawmakers cast vote

The voting process for the presidential election that started in the Legislature-Parliament at 11 am concluded at around 2 pm on Wednesday afternoon.

549 lawmakers out of 597 cast their votes, while 48 lawmakers remained absent. The counting of vote is slated to begin at 2:30 pm and the results would be announced in the meeting to be held at 5:00 this evening.

The parliament is electing the President for the first time after the promulgation of new constitution through the Constituent Assembly.

CPN-UML Vice-chair Bidhya Devi Bhandari had registered her candidacy to the post of the President with support from the political parties of ruling alliance while Nepali Congress leader Kul Bahadur Gurung had also filed his candidacy to the post.