Ram Chandra Paudel elected Nepal’s third president amid crisis

Veteran Nepali Congress leader Ram Chandra Paudel has been elected the Himalayan nation’s third president since a centuries-old monarchy was abolished in 2008.

In the two-man race for the largely ceremonial position, the 78-year-old Paudel secured 33,802 votes. His rival, Subash Chandra Nembang, received 15,518 votes, Nepali media reported on Thursday.

Paudel, a former speaker, has been a six-time lawmaker and has held a ministerial position five times, including interior ministry. He began his political career as a student leader during the decades-long partyless Panchayat system that lasted to 1990. He was imprisoned while fighting against the former king’s rule.

The vote comes following a dramatic split in the communist-dominated governing coalition headed by Prime Ministeer Pushpa Kamal Dahal, a former Maoist rebel chief.

The tenure of the outgoing president, Bidya Devi Bhandari, ends on March 12.

The president is elected by an electoral college comprising of two houses of federal parliament and seven provincial legislators. Nepal is a parliamentary democracy with a ceremonial president as head of the state, but during times of political crisis, the president can play a key function in government formation.

(Aljazeera)