WORLD NEWS | Nepal: Voting for new president underway

Kathmandu [Nepal]March 9 (ANI): Voting is underway at the Nepal Parliament building in New Baneshwar, Kathmandu to elect the country’s new president, with results expected at 7pm local time.

The Election Commission has set up two separate polling stations for federal MPs and provincial assembly members in the lobby.

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The election official’s office said the counting of ballots would begin after polls were completed at 3 pm (NST) on Thursday and the results announced at 7 pm (NST).

Meanwhile, lawmakers from various provinces have arrived in Kathmandu to take part in the election. The electoral college consists of 884 members, including 275 members of the House of Representatives, 59 members of the National Assembly, and 550 members of the seven provincial assemblies.

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This means that if there were no vacancies in the federal and provincial assemblies, the electoral college would have a total of 52,786 votes. Candidates must receive a majority of the vote to secure the top job.

Members of the federal parliament have 79 votes and members of the provincial parliament have 48 votes.

The pro-monarchist party abstained. The Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP), known for its support of the monarchy, has decided to abstain in Thursday’s presidential election.

A meeting of the party’s central working committee on Wednesday decided to abstain from voting on today’s vote.

RPP spokesman Mohan Shrestha confirmed that the Central Working Council has decided to remain neutral in the presidential election.

“It was unanimously decided not to participate in the presidential election and to remain neutral,” Shrestha said.

In today’s election, senior Nepali Congress leader Ram Chandra Podell has the support of eight parties, while the sole candidate from Nepal’s UML, Subhash Chandra Nebon, is expected to win Supported by independent lawmakers.

The RPP has not endorsed or proposed any presidential candidate. Paudel and Nembang later met RPP chairman Rajendra Lingden and other officials at the RPP office and sought their votes in the election.

But the RPP has decided to abstain on the eve of the presidential election. Most members of the central working council said at a five-hour meeting on Wednesday that the party should not run in the presidential election because the party’s agenda is the monarchy. (Arnie)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from a Syndicated News feed, the content body may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)