By IRNA,
New Delhi : Nepal is going to elect its first president on Saturday. Three candidates, Ram Raja Prasad Singh of CPN (Maoist), Dr. Ram Baran Yadav of Nepali Congress and Ramprit Paswan of CPN(UML) are in the fray.
According to reports the contest is likely to be tough. Madhesh Janadhikar Forum (MJF) has decided to support the Maoist candidate Ram Raja Prasad Singh for the post of President and nominated Parmanand Jha as its candidate for the Vice-President.
There are four candidates for election to the post of Vice President. The CPN (Maoist) has fielded Shanta Shrestha, Nepali Congress – Min Bahadur Biswakarma & CPN (UML) – Astha Laxmi Sakya.
Of the 601 constituent assembly members, 594 are eligible to cast their votes for the presidential election. Two newly appointed CA members are yet to be sworn in and for five constituencies by-election are to be held.
According to the official election schedule, the name of Nepal’s first President of the new republic would be announced at five Sunday afternoon with the declaration of the election result.
Maoists’ candidate Ramraja Prasad Singh, 74, of Nava Janawadi Morcha, is likely to win the election as he is also backed by three Madhesi parties.
The Maoists have 226 seats in the Constituent Assembly and with the support of Madhesi parties, which have 86 parliamentarians, Singh is likely to get at least 314 votes against the magic number of 298 required to win the election in the Constituent Assembly.