Kathmandu, October 16

The eighth international general assembly of Non-Resident Nepali Association (NRNA) has elected Bhaban Bhatta as the new president of the organisation.

Bhatta has defeated his competitor Jamuna Gurung Ghale in the election held here today.

Bhatta, who has been associated with the non-resident Nepali movement since the beginning, had started his journey in  NRNA as the executive member of the adhoc committee in 2003 while forming the organisation and served in various posts of the international coordination council (ICC) of the NRNA.

Bhatta has been living in Nepal since the last 21 years. He owns chain restaurants and a resort in Japan. Bhatta has investment in various sectors in Nepal, like hospitality, media, brewery, education, aviation, among others. Bhatta will lead the NRNA for the next two years.

After being elected as the new President of NRNA, Bhatta said that he will take forward the NRNA movement and work towards making a substantiative contribution in his motherland. He said that every Nepali will get an opportunity to contribute to the socio-economic development of the country through a collective investment fund.

Similarly, the general assembly has elected Kumar Panta (Germany), Kul Acharya (UK) and Sapila Rajbhandari (Russia) as vice presidents. Panta had served as vice president in the earlier executive committee, Acharya was coordinator for Europe region and Rajbhandari was women coordinator in previous executive committee.

Badri KC (Russia) has been elected as the general secretary and Hikmat Thapa (Nigeria) has been elected as treasurer.

Sunil Karki, has been elected as the coordinator for Africa region, Bhuban Prasad Dhakal and Shiva Prasad Sharma Paudel as deputy regional coordinators for Africa. Manakala Bista Thapa has been elected as women deputy regional coordinator and Babu Ram Luitel Sharma as deputy youth regional coordinator for Africa unanimously.

Likewise, Yasmin Begam Saiyad and Raj Kumar Basnet have been elected unanimously as women and youth deputy regional coordinator for the Middle East, respectively.

The candidates were vying for 39 different posts in the new executive committee.