KATHMANDU, Feb 28: According to the Election Commission (EC), the candidates of the presidential election can withdraw their candidature today, according to the election schedule. The EC has said that the final list of candidates will be published after the time for withdrawing the candidacies is over.

Nepali Congress leader Ramchandra Paudel and CPN-UML leader Subash Nemwang are in the race for the presidency. Paudel is supported by a new eight-party coalition. On the other hand, while RPP, RSP and Nepal Workers Peasants Party have not decided who to support for the presidency, Nemwang has only the support of his own party UML so far.

The commission has already announced that 881 voters will be eligible to vote in the presidential election to be held on March 9. There is a constitutional provision for the election of the president by the electoral college consisting of the members of the Federal Parliament (House of Representatives and the National Assembly) and the provincial assemblies. Accordingly, 331 members of the Federal Parliament and 550 members of the seven provincial assemblies will cast their votes on March 9 to elect the country’s new president. There will be separate polling stations for the members of the Federal Parliament and the members of the provincial assemblies for the presidential election. The votes of the members of the Federal Parliament and the provincial assemblies will also be different.

Article 62 (1) of the Constitution mentions that the votes of the members of the Federal Parliament and the members of the provincial assemblies are different according to the federal law. The  weighted vote of the Federal Parliament is 79 and that of the Provincial Assembly is 48. The vote weightage of the members of the Federal Parliament is 26,149 and that of the members of the provincial assemblies is 26,400. The term of office of the President is five years from the date of election and it is mentioned in the constitution that a person who has been elected president twice cannot be a candidate for the election again.

According to the election schedule, voting for the president will be held on March 9th from 10AM to 3PM. The counting of votes will start from 4PM and the commission is preparing to announce the results by 7 PM on the same day.

 
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