Kathmandu, March 9: Voting for the election of the third president of Nepal has started at the parliament building in New Baneshwor today.
Nepali Congress senior leader Ramchandra Poudel and CPN-UML Vice-Chairman Subash Nemwang are vying for the presidential election.
Candidate Ramchandra Poudel, who reached the polling station before the start of voting, has already voted. Only then did Nemwang vote.
Election Officer Mahesh Sharma Poudel has informed that the counting of votes will be started in a hall inside the Parliament building as soon as the elections are over and the results will be announced by 7 pm today.
The voting time has been fixed till 3 pm today. Federal MPs (Members of the House of Representatives and National Assembly) and members of the Provincial Assembly are voting.
Red color ballot papers have been made for federal MPs and green color ballot papers for provincial assembly members. The names of the candidates along with their photographs are also placed on the ballot paper.
The weightage for Federal MPs have 79 votes and state MPs have 48 votes. Adding up the votes of all the candidates is 52,786 and to be elected the president requires a majority i.e. 26,394 votes.
First President of the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal was Dr. Ram Baran Yadav. He was the senior leader from Nepali Congress. Mrs Bidya Devi Bhandari was elected as the second president from CPN-UML.
Since Bhandari’s two consecutive terms will end on March 12, voting has been fixed for today to elect a new president. The election for the post of Vice President will be held on March 17, 2023.
