Nepal to elect its new President today

Kathmandu: New President of Nepal will be elected today after political parties failed to come up with a consensus candidate till Sunday's deadline. According to PTI, the presidential election will see a direct fight between Nepali Congress leader Kul Bahadur Gurung and CPN-UML's Vidya Devi Bhandari. Nepal Workers Peasants Party's central member Narayan Maharjan withdrew his candidature Tuesday.

The new President will succeed incumbent President Ram Baran Yadav who was elected as the first President of Nepal in 2008 after the country was declared a Republic.

Officials said, polling for the Vice-president's post has



been re-scheduled for Saturday. Madhesi leader of the Nepali Congress Amiya Kumar Yadav has been named as the candidate for Vice-President.

With the promulgation of the Constitution on the 20th of last month, it was required to elect a new President within a month of the commencement of the Parliament session.

As per the schedule finalised by Parliament, the political parties were given a deadline till October 25th to come up with consensus candidates for the posts of President and Vice President, which they were unable to.

The election comes even as Madhesi groups are opposing the new Constitution.