By Xinhua,
Kathmandu : Ram Baran Yadav from Nepali Congress (NC) was elected the first Nepali president, Constituent Assembly (CA) speaker declared on Monday afternoon.
Kul Bahadur Gurung, the CA speaker, declared that Ram Yadav with 308 votes won in the second-round president election on Monday was elected the first president of the world’s youngest federal democratic republic.
Ram Yadav’s rival, Ram Raja Prasad Singh nominated by the single largest CA party, the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) (CPN-M), won 282 votes.
The newly-elected president and vice president will take oath before the chief justice on Wednesday, the CA decided.
Gurung also declared the election for the speaker is set at local time 11:00 (0515 GMT) on July 24, the coming Thursday. Gurung temporarily held the post of CA speaker as the second age-senior member in CA after the most senior Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala.
Supporters from the NC have been celebrating their party’s victory at the CA venue, International Convention Center (ICC) in Nepali capital Kathmandu.
CPN-M chairman Prachanda has extended his congratulations to Ram Baran Yadav on Monday afternoon. However, some CPN-M leaders also have on Monday afternoon said their party will not join the new government.
Nepali CA members began voting in the re-polling for the post of the youngest republic’s president on Monday morning.
On Saturday evening, Madhesi People’s Rights Forum (MPRF) candidate Paramananda Jha was declared the first vice president of republican Nepal by the CA. However, none of the presidential candidates gathered simple majority support from Saturday’s 578 voting CA members. Ram Baran Yadav on Saturday bagged 283 votes and Ram Raja Prasad Singh won 270 votes.
Since no single candidate won over half support (298 votes out of 594 CA member voters), two top candidates securing the largest number of votes, Ram Baran Yadav and Ram Raja Prasad Singh, came to contest again in the elections for the second round on Monday.
Nepal was declared a federal democratic republic at the first CA meeting on May 28, ending the 240-year Shah dynasty.
MPRF candidate Paramananda Jha won Saturday’s election with support from the NC and the third largest CA party, the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist) (CPN-UML).
The three party went together when the CPN-M rejected NC’s proposal for Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala and CPN-UML’s proposal for its former general secretary Madhav Kumar Nepal to take the presidential post, and turned down to support MPRF’s vice president claim.
After MPRF bagged vice presidential post, NC presidential post, the CPN-UML is expected to win the CA speaker on July 24, with the three-party alliance’s support.