Ram Chandra Paudel elected new President of Nepal

Ram Chandra Paudel has been elected as the new President of Nepal. Nepali Congress candidate Paudel won the election held on Thursday by a huge margin. He defeated Subash Chandra Nembang of the CPN-UML by 18, 284 votes. Paudel garnered 33, 802 votes while Nembang secured 15, 518 votes.

According to the Election Commission, out of 882 voters, 831 cast their votes.

Of the 332 federal Parliament members, 313 cast their votes and out of 550 Province Assembly members, 518 cast their ballots. A total of 14 lawmakers of the Rastriya Prajatantra Party and Prem Suwal of the Nepal Workers Peasants Party did not take part in the voting. CPN (Maoist Center) lawmaker Barshaman Pun and Nepali Congress lawmaker Chandra Bhandari could not take part in the voting as they are in China and India respectively for treatment. Federal Parliament and Province Assembly lawmakers are the voters for the presidential election. A vote cast by a member of the federal Parliament has the weight of 79 votes, whereas the vote cast by a member of the Provincial Assembly has the weight of 48 votes. The term of the Office of the President shall be five years from the date on which he/she is elected. Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba, CPN (Unified Socialist) Chairman Madhav Kumar Nepal, CPN (Maoist Center) senior Vice-Chairman Narayan Kaji Shrestha, Nagarik Unmukti Party Chairperson Ranjita Shrestha, Janamat Party leader Abdul Khan and Janata Samajbadi Party leader Ashok Rai proposed Paudel’s name for the President. Democratic Socialist Party Chairman Mahantha Thakur, Janamorcha Party Chairman Chitra Bahadur KC, Nepali Congress Vice-President Purna Bahadur Khadka and CPN (Maoist Center) leader Hitraj Pandey seconded the proposal. Nembang was proposed and seconded by just the UML. The election for the fourth term of the President was held today. Nepal got its first President through the voting on July 19, 2008 after the country adopted the democratic republican system through the 2062/63 movements. Ram Baran Yadav was elected as the first President of the country. Yadav of the Nepali Congress obtained 283 votes against Ram Raja Prasad Singh from the then UCPN (Maoist) who got 270 votes. After both the candidates failed to secure majority votes, re-election was held on July 21, 2008 Yadav won the re-election by garnering 308 votes while his closest contender got 282. Bidya Devi Bhandari is now serving as the second and current President of the country. This is her second term in the Office of the President. She was elected on October 28, 2015 for her second term. The new Constitution that was endorsed in 2015 as per federalism provisioned 334-member federal Parliament (the House of Representatives and the National Assembly) and the 550-member Province Assembly. The members of the federal Parliament and the Province Assemblies are eligible voters for the presidential election. Bhandari secured 327 votes while her nearest rival Kul Bahadur Gurung of the Nepali Congress received 214 votes. She was supported by the CPN-UML, the then UCPN (Maoist), Rastriya Prajatantra Party-Nepal and Madhesi Janadhikar Forum Loktantrik among other parties. Out of the total 597 voters, 549 took part in the voting, and 48 remained absent. Eight votes were invalid. She was re-elected as the President on March 13, 2018. Of the total 884 eligible voters, 862 (326 under the federal Parliament and 536 under the Province Assembly) cast their votes. Eight votes were invalid. Who is President-elect Paudel? Paudel (78) was born in Risti Bahunpokhara of Tanahun district in September 1944. He got into politics at the age of 16 after the then Prime Minister BP Koirala and his entire Cabinet members were arrested in 1960. Paudel worked closely with Koirala after he returned from exile in India in December 1976. He took part in the armed revolution launched by the Congress in 1961. Paudel, who was elected as the President of the Student Union in the Saraswati Campus in 1966, was elected as the General Secretary of the Prajatantrik Samajbadi Yuva League in 1967. He became the founding central member of the Nepal Student Union in 1970. The party made him the coordinator of the Central Publicity Committee in 1983. Paudel’s journey to the Parliament started after he won the 1991 election from Tanahun-1. Later, he became the local development minister. He was also appointed as the agricultural minister. Paudel won the mid-term elections held in 1994 from Tanahun-2. He served as the Speaker of the Parliament from 1994 till 1998. He was elected for the third term from Tanahun-2 in 1999. He took the responsibility of Deputy Prime Minister, Home Minister and Communications Minister in 2000. Paudel was appointed as the peace minister in 2002. He became the General Secretary of the Nepali Congress in 2005. He was appointed as the coordinator of the Peace Secretariat after the Maoist joined the peace process by signing a 12-point agreement with seven political parties. Paudel was appointed as the peace and reconstruction minister in 2006. He became the Vice-President of the Congress in 2007. Paudel, who was elected as a member of the Constituent Assembly held the same year from Tanahun-2, became the Parliamentary Party leader of the party in 2008. He could not be elected to the post of Prime Minister despite contesting the election for 17 times in 2010. Maoist Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal and CPN-UML leader Jhalanath Khanal were the candidates. Paudel was elected as the member of the Constituent Assembly for the second time from Tanahun-2. He became the acting President of the Nepali Congress after the demise of then President Sushil Koirala in 2015. He lost to Sher Bahadur Deuba in the party’s 13th convention held the same year. He also lost the election held in 2017. However, Paudel was elected as a member of the House of Representatives from Tanahun-1 this time. He spent around 13 years in jail.