Three in fray for Nepal president’s job

The election for the posts of president and vice-president in Nepal is set to be exciting. All three major political parties — the Maoists, the Nepali Congress and the Communist Party of Nepal (UML) — have fielded their candidates for the posts.

The Maoist on Thursday proposed the name of veteran pro-republic and Madhesi leader Ram Raja Prasad Singh for the post of president and Shanta Shrestha for the vice-president’s post.

The reason the Maoists had to field candidates, according to Maoist chief Prachanda, was that the Nepali Congress and the CPN (UML) were not keen to select anyone on the basis of consensus.

Prachanda said Ram Raja Prasad Singh’s contribution to the pro-republican movement in Nepal is beyond any comparison. “It’s the duty of the political parties to express their gratitude to him by electing him as the first president of Nepal,” he added.

The CPN (UML) has proposed the name of Ramprit Paswan for president and Astha Laxmi Shakya for vice-president, while the Nepali Congress has proposed Rambaran Yadav and Man Bahadur Biswakarma for the posts of president and vice-president respectively. Interestingly, all the three presidential candidates are Madhesis.

It is expected that the three Terai-based parties — the Madheshi Janadhikar Forum, Sadbhawana Party and the Terai-Madhesh Loktantrik Party — are likely to support the candidature of Ram Raja Prasad Singh.

The election for the posts of president and vice-president would be held at 11 am on Saturday and the result would be declared at 5 pm by the chairman of the Constituent Assembly.