Nepal votes in presidential election

Nepal today voted in its presidential election with early trends indicating a win for incumbent Bidya Devi Bhandari, the country's first woman president.
Bhandari is on course for an overwhelming majority since her nomination is backed by the ruling Left alliance of the CPN-UML and CPN (Maoist Centre), the Sanghiya Samajbadi Forum-Nepal and other fringe parties, the Kathmandu Post reported.
Bhandari is facing Nepali Congress leader Kumari Laxmi Rai for the post of head of state.
A total of 334 members of the federal parliament, comprising 275 members of the house of representatives, 59 of the national assembly, and 550 of provincial assemblies are eligible to vote in the election.

But three nominees of the national assembly will be out of the voting process because their appointments have been challenged in the Supreme Court.
According to the Act for the Election of President and Deputy President, each vote of a lawmaker in the parliament will have a weightage of 79 and those from provincial assemblies will have 48.

With 148 lawmakers in the Federal Parliament and 243 in Provincial Assemblies, the CPN-UML commands a total vote of 23,356.
CPN (Maoist Centre) has 65 lawmakers in parliament and 108 in provincial assemblies, which account for 10,319 votes.
The Nepali Congress, which has 76 seats in parliament and 113 in provincial assemblies, has a total vote of 11,428.

As Sanghiya Samajbadi Forum-Nepal and other fringe parties also deciding to support Bhandari, she could easily garner 26,921 votes for her re-election.
An electoral college, including members of parliament and provincial assemblies, will vote in the election.
The results would be announced tomorrow, said Bharat Raj Gautam, spokesperson at Parliament Secretariat.