Election to choose prez, Vice-prez starts

Election for the selection of president and vice president has kicked off at the Constituent Assembly (CA) venue at International Convention Centre in the capital today.

Ram Raja Prasad Singh, Dr Ram Baran Yadav and Ram Prit Paswan are contesting in today’s elections vying to be the federal democratic republic Nepal’s first president.

Likewise, Shanta Shrestha, Maan Bahadur Bishwakarma, Asta Laxmi Shakya and Parmananda Jha are the candidates for the vice-presidential post.

The voting time scheduled 11 this morning has started a bit later than the scheduled time due to new alliances being formed among the political parties.

The voting process began after CPN (UML), Nepali Congress and Madhesi Janadhikar Forum agreed to support each other's candidate sidelining the CPN (Maoist).

About 30 percent of the lawmakers have already cast their votes until 1pm. The Election Commission is likely to extend the duration for voting process. It had earlier fixed the time from 11am to 2pm today for the voting.

The CA members will sit for a meeting once the vote count completes.

The CA is expected to announce the country’s first president and the vice president by this evening.