Nepalmountainnews Report | 21 Jul 2008
Re-polling for the post of president has begun from 8:00 am this morning at Lhotse Hall of the International Convention Centre (ICC), Kathmandu to elect the first president of the republic Nepal.
The counting of votes will be from 1:00 pm to 3:00 pm and the Election Officer will present the results of the re-polling before the CA Chairman at 3:30 pm.
Dr. Ram Baran Yadav, general secretary of Nepali Congress (NC), who has been supported by Unified Marxist Leninist (UML) and Madhesi Janadhikar Forum (MJF), appears in a stronger position compared with his rival Maoist-nominee Ram Raja Prasad Singh
As per the latest alliance mark-sheet by Kantipur daily, Dr.Yadav has been promised of support from CPN-ML (9 members), CPN-United (5), RPP (8), RJP (3), Rastriya Jana Morcha (4), Jana Morcha (1), NSP-Anandidevi (1), Chure Bhawar (1), Loktantrik Samajbadi Dal (1) and Independent (2). These support are in addition to NC (113), UML (108) and MJF (52) members. This puts the total number of pledged support to 308 – which is more than enough for Dr. Yadav to be elected.
On Monday morning, the Nepal Workers and Peasants Party (NWPP) also decided to throw its weight of 5 members in favour of Dr. Yadav. This takes the number of his supporters to 313.
A candidate needs to bag at least 298 to win the election with comfortable majority. There are 594 voters – the existing Constituent Assembly (CA) members.
In the first phase of the presidential election on Saturday, Dr. Yadav had garnered 283 votes against 270 by Singh. Since neither could bag comfortable majority, the run-off polls are being held on Monday
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