KATHMANDU, Dec 13: A re-election is to be held for the post of party president at the 14th General Convention of Nepali Congress (NC) with none of the five candidates getting a majority in the first round.
Incumbent party president and Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba failed to get a majority in the first round and will now compete with Shekhar Koirala in the second.
Deuba was able to secure 2,258 votes. A total of 4,679 representatives cast their votes during the voting on Monday. The magical number to get elected was 2,340 and Deuba fell short by 82 votes.
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Shekhar Koirala came second with 1,729 votes.
A member of the party's Central Election Committee said preparations are being made to organize the second round of voting from 3.30 PM today. The voting will take place at three polling stations, like yesterday. Out of the total 4,743 voters, 4,679 took part in the first round of voting held on Monday.
As per the NC statute, a candidate vying for the post of president has to secure more than 50 percent of the votes cast to get elected.
Since no candidate secured more than 50 percent votes, second-round voting is being held today. The candidate securing the highest number of votes in the run-off election will be declared the winner.
The election was held for 132 party posts including the central working committee office-bearers and the members.
(RSS)
