With the decision of the eight-party alliance formed on Friday (February 24) for the presidential election, it appears that the candidate nominated by the Nepali Congress (NC) for the presidency will win with a large number of votes.
A meeting of the Nepali Congress, CPN (Maoist Center), Janata Samajbadi Party (JSP), CPN (Unified Socialist), Janamat Party, Loktantrik Samajbadi Party (LSP), Nagarik Unmukti Party, and Rastriya Janamorcha decided to support the Nepali Congress candidate for the presidency on Friday afternoon at the Prime Minister's residence in Baluwatar.
The Maoist Center decided to help the NC after UML did not give up its stance that the president should be from its own party. With the formation of an eight-party alliance including the NC and the Maoist Center, it is possible that the candidate of this alliance will win the presidency with more than 31,000 votes.
In the presidential election where the members of the federal parliament and province assembly members are voters, the NC has 16,221 votes, while the Maoist Center has 7,776 votes. Similarly, the Unified Socialist has 2,673 votes, JSP has 2,145 votes, Janamat Party has 1,242 votes, LSP has 971 votes, Nagarik Unmukti Party has 844 votes and Rastriya Janamorcha has 223 votes.
The total sum of all these voting weighted comes to 31, 067.
If other parties join this alliance, the NC candidate will get more votes in the election. As Aam Janata Party president Prabhu Sah and some independent MPs are also supporters of this alliance, there is a possibility that the vote of the NC candidate will increase further.
It is not certain which parties will join the UML-led coalition in the presidential election. But, so far, Rastriya Swatantra Party and Rastriya Prajatantra Party seem to be close.
The RPP, which has the agenda of restoring the monarchy, has signaled that its MPs will not participate in the presidential election.
For the presidential election, UML has 15,233 votes, while RPP and RSP have 2,450 and 1,580 votes, respectively.
Nepal Workers and Peasants Party has 223 votes. Similarly, the independent MPs have 971 votes and the Nepal Federal Socialist Party, which has only one seat (Madhesh Province) in the Province Assembly, has 48 votes.
Article 62 (3) of the Constitution states that to be elected as President or Vice President, a majority of the total votes of the Electoral College is required. If no candidate gets a majority in the first election, the two candidates who get the most votes will be voted on.
Article 62 (4) provides that the candidate who gets more than 50 percent of the votes in the second election will be elected president.
A candidate needs 26, 394 votes to win the presidency. As there are more than 31,000 votes in favor of the alliance formed on Friday, it is likely that the NC candidate will win with a large number of votes.
However, it is not clear whom the NC will nominate for the presidency. President Sher Bahadur Deuba, senior leader Ramchandra Paudel and Krishna Prasad Sitaula are in discussion.
