KATMANDU, NEPAL — Nepal’s governing assembly failed to elect the new republic’s first president Saturday when none of the three candidates were able to secure half the total votes necessary to win, an official said.
The candidates were required to get half the votes in the 594-members Constituent Assembly to be elected.
Constituent Assembly chairman Kul Bahadur Gurung said another election will be held Monday. That contest will be between the two top candidates.
Ram Baran Yadav of the Nepali Congress party came closest with 283 votes, followed by Ramraja Singh who garnered 270 votes. The third candidate, Ram Prit Paswan, got no votes.
The small Madhesi People’s Rights Forum managed to get their candidate, Parmanandra Jha, elected as vice president. Jha got 305 votes, Gurung said. There were four candidates contesting the vice president’s position.
It’s the first time Nepal has held elections for president and vice president since the country abolished the centuries-old monarchy and declared a republic in May.
The assembly has also been unable to form a new government because the main parties have bickered over forming a ruling coalition. The former communist rebels, who now make up the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), won the most seats in the Constituent Assembly in April elections.
The last king, who went by just one name, Gyanendra, was forced to give up authoritarian rule in April 2006 after weeks of pro-democracy protests and his powers were stripped soon afterward.
He has been made to leave the royal palace and now is living as a commoner in a summer home just outside the capital Katmandu.
