KATHMANDU, August 23: The 25th General Convention of the Federation of Nepalese Journalists (FNJ) concluded on Tuesday by electing a 45-member new working committee under Gobinda Acharya.
According to the poll result announced on Tuesday morning, Acharya, a candidate belonging to CPN (Maoist Center)-affiliated Press Center, was elected to the post of FNJ president after securing 732 votes. His nearest rival Tirtha Koirala of Press Chautari Nepal secured 627 votes.
Nepal Press Union (NPU) close to Nepali Congress and Press Center close to CPN (Maoist Center) had forged electoral alliance in the FNJ election. Acharya's panel has secured victory in all office bearer positions including the central working committee elected from various provinces.
FNJ's 25th General Convention begins
Similarly, Bipul Pokharel from Nepal Press Union has been elected as vice president (open category) and Dilip Thapa Magar as another vice president (inclusive category). Ramesh Bista and Ram Prasad Dahal have been elected as general secretary and secretary respectively under the open category.
Laxmi Pun (woman), Udaya GM (Janajati), Shital Prasad Mahato (Madhesi), Rem Bahadur Bishwakarma (Dalit) have been elected as secretaries under the inclusive quota. While Rajesh Verma has been elected as treasurer, Prakash Thapa has been elected secretary (associate).
According to the poll result, Roshan Puri has been elected as account committee coordinator and Mira Raj Bhandari and Bhupendra Acharya have been elected as members of the committee.
Similarly, Pawan Acharya and Radhe Shyam Dahal have been elected as associate members. Tika Ram Pradhan and Yam Birahi have been elected as associate members of the FNJ.
Separately, two central committee members have been elected from each of the seven provinces. Those elected include Satendra Jabegu and Uddhab Timilsina from Province 1, Devram Yadav and Shailendra Jha from Province 2, Dwarika Kafle and Krishna Giri from Province 3, Ram Krishna Gywali and Nabin Kuinkel from Province 4. Similarly, Basant Giri and Purushottam Subedi from Province 5, Kalendra Sejuwal and Purna Prasad Chaulagain from Province 6 and Meen Bam and Uttar Bista from Province 7 have been elected as FJN central committee members.
Altogether 1,508 FNJ central councilors had arrived in Kathmandu from across the country to take part in the general convention that began on Sunday. Of them, only 1,449 of them cast their votes.
Speaking at a program organized on Tuesday to congratulate the newly elected executive committee of FNJ, Acharya made the announcement to devise action-plans that would ensure FNJ to be an umbrella organization of all the journalists in the true sense.
Vice President Bipul Pokharel affirmed his commitment to help resolve the issues relating to the working journalists during his stint as the vice president.
