KATHMANDU, March 9: The Election Commission (EC) has said that the preparations for the presidential election have been completed.

Ram Chandra Poudel of the Nepali Congress (NC) and Subash Chandra Nembang of the CPN-UML are the two candidates vying for the post of the country’s head of the state. According to the EC, voting for the new president will take place from 10 am to 3 pm today.

Two polling stations have been set up in the federal parliament building in New Baneshwar. One polling station has been built for the federal parliament and the other for the province assembly members.

EC officials said mobile phones are not allowed inside the polling stations and anyone violating the rule is subjected to action on charge of being involved in an election offense. “The counting of votes will start from 4 pm and the result will be announced at 7 pm,” said Election Officer Mahesh Sharma. 

The president is elected by an electoral college composed of the members of the federal parliament and the provincial assemblies. It consists of 884 members, including 275 members of the House of Representatives (Lower House), 59 members of the National Assembly (Upper House), and 550 members of seven provincial assemblies. 

The weight of each vote varies according to the Federal law, with a member of the federal parliament's vote carrying 79 votes, and a member of the provincial assembly's vote carrying 48 votes.

A total of 15 political parties and a few independent lawmakers are eligible to vote in the Nepalese presidential election. The EC has recognized the NC, UML, CPN (Maoist Center), CPN (Unified Socialist), Rastriya Swatantra Party, Rastriya Prajatantra Party, and Janata Samajbadi Party as eligible to cast votes. 

Other parties eligible for votes include Janamat Party, Loktantrik Samajbadi Party, Nagarik Unmukti Party, Nepal Workers' and Peasants Party, People's Front Nepal, Hamro Nepali Party, as well as independent lawmakers in the federal parliament and 550 provincial assembly members from across seven provinces.

This means that there will be a total of 52,707 electoral votes in the electoral college that elects the new president. A candidate must secure more than 50 percent of the total votes to get elected as a new president.

Backed by eight parties including his own party, NC, Paudel is a strong contender for the post of president while Nembang has the support of his party UML alone.

It may be just a coincidence that both Poudel and Nembang served as Speaker of the lower house of the federal parliament. Poudel served as HoR Speaker from December 18, 1994 to March 23, 1999.

Similarly, Nembang served as HoR Speaker from July 27, 2008 to May 27, 2012. He also served as the HoR Speaker for the second time from February 18, 2014 to October 14, 2015. Nembang had played an instrumental role in his capacity as chairman of both the constituent assemblies.

The post of the president in Nepal is primarily a ceremonial post with limited power. However, in recent years, the presidency has been a topic of controversy for exercising more power than envisaged in the constitution.

This issue ultimately led to the collapse of the UML-Maoist Centre alliance as Maoist Centre Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal backtracked from his decision to support the UML candidate as the president fearing that the UML candidate would misuse authority as in the past.  

 
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