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.
