Kathmandu: As none of the four candidates secured more than 50 percent of votes, Nepali Congress delegates are ready to vote again to elect the party’s president in the ongoing 14th general convention.
Incumbent President Sher Bahadur Deuba and Dr Shekhar Koirala will battle for the presidential post in the second round.
In the first round of voting, Deuba clinched 2,258 votes, while his closest contender Dr Koirala secured 1,729 votes. Similarly, Prakash Man Singh bagged 360 votes, Bimalendra Nidhi bagged 239 votes and Kalyan Gurung got 20 votes, the party’s Central Election Committee said.
As per the NC statute, a candidate vying for the post of president has to secure more than 50 per cent of the votes cast to get elected.
Since no candidate secured more than 50 per cent votes, second round voting is to be held now. The candidate securing the highest number of votes in the run-off election will be declared the winner.
The Election Committee said Deuba polled 48.23 per cent votes, Koirala 36.93 per cent, Singh 7.92 per cent, Nidhi 5.31 per cent and Gurung 0.04 per cent of the total votes cast in the election. Deuba was short of 81 votes to become the president of the party.
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