Ajit Karn
Nepal Presidential election:On Thursday, Nepal will elect a new president. The Election Commission announced on Wednesday that all election preparations are complete and that results are expected at 7 p.m. (Local Time).
“All preparations- technical, human resources, and other managerial-related – have been completed in anticipation of the voting for the election of the President to be held in Lhotse Hall of the Parliament Building in New Baneshwor,” said Mahesh Sharma Paudel, the Election Officer.
The Election Commission has set up two separate polling stations for federal parliamentarians, while the polling station for provincial assembly members is located in the hall.
Voting will begin at 10 AM (local time) today and end at 3 PM (Local Time). There are two candidates in the running: senior leader of the Nepali Congress Ram Chandra Poudel and vice-chair of the CPN (UML) Subash Chandra Nembang.
The Office of the Election Officer has announced that vote counting will begin at 3 p.m. (NST) on Thursday after voting concludes and that the results will be announced by 7 p.m. (NST). Meanwhile, legislators from all provinces have arrived in Kathmandu for 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.
If no seat in the federal parliament or provincial assembly is vacant, there will be a total weightage of 52,786 votes in the Electoral College. To be elected, a candidate must receive a majority of the votes cast.
The weight of a federal parliament member’s vote is 79, while that of a provincial assembly member is 48.
The pro-monarchy party will not vote. Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP), known for its pro-monarchy stance, has decided to boycott Thursday’s Nepal Presidential Election.
A meeting of the party’s central working committee on Wednesday decided to abstain from voting today.
Mohan Shrestha, spokesman for the RPP, confirmed that the central working committee has chosen to remain neutral in the upcoming presidential election.
“It has been unanimously decided not to participate in the presidential election and to remain neutral,” Shrestha said.
Ram Chandra Paudel, the senior leader of the Nepali Congress, is supported by eight parties in today’s election, whereas Subash Chandra Nembang, the sole candidate of the CPN-UML, is expected to receive support from independent lawmakers.
RPP had neither endorsed nor proposed a presidential candidate. Paudel and Nembang had subsequently met with RPP Chairman Rajendra Lingden and other office-bearers at the RPP office to solicit their votes in the election.
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But on the eve of the Nepal presidential election, RPP has decided to abstain from voting. During Wednesday’s five-hour meeting, the majority of the central working committee members opined that the party should not participate in the presidential election because the party’s agenda is the monarchy.
