Candidates for president, veep file nominations; Singh stands fair chance

Candidates for the post of president and vice president filed their nominations at the secretariat of the Constituent Assembly (CA) on Thursday.

Maoist supported presidential candidate Ram Raja Prasad Singh talking to journalists after...

After filing their nominations, all three presidential candidates - Ramraja Prasad Singh, Dr Ram Baran Yadav (Nepali Congress) and Ram Preet Paswan (UML) - claimed they would muster enough support to become the first president of republican Nepal.

Among the presidential hopefuls, Singh, a veteran pro-republic leader, has the biggest chance to become the president with support from both the Maoists and the Madhesi parties.

Madhesh parties have announced their support to him although he was proposed by the Maoists. Singh is likely to muster enough support to become the president with simple majority.

After filing his candidacy, Singh told reporters that he was hopeful to become the president of the country as the political parties and people were supporting him.

He said that he would work for institutionalising the republic. Similarly, Dr. Yadav also hoped to become the president "for being the NC candidate which fought for democracy for sixty years".

Another candidate Paswan argued that he was the most eligible candidate for the post as he initiated protest against royal regime by conducing parliamentary activities in the street.

The most interesting fact here is that all the presidential hopefuls are from Madheshi community and the first name of all the candidates is 'Ram.'

There are four hopefuls for vice-president. Shanta Shrestha with support from the Maoists has filed her candidacy for the post. Similarly, Man Bahadur Bishwokarma from NC, Astha Laxmi Shakya from UML and Parmananda Jha from Madhesi People's Right Forum have filed nominations for the post. nepalnews.com ps July 17 08