KATHMANDU, DECEMBER 21
Sher Bahadur Deuba has been elected the Parliamentary Party leader of the Nepali Congress, country's largest party, on Wednesday.
In today's NC PP leader election, which was held in Singh Durbar, Deuba defeated Gagan Thapa with a difference of 39 votes.
Deuba garnered 64 votes while Thapa received just 25 votes.
In the 275-member house of representatives, there are 89 members of the NC 57 of whom were chosen through first-past-the-post voting and 32 through proportional representation.
Both the candidates had submitted their nominations on Tuesday.Thapa's nomination was proposed by NC senior leader Shekhar Koirala, who had initially expressed desire to run for the post himself, and supported by the Co-General Secretary Bishwaparkash Sharma and other leaders including Pradeep Paudel.
Meanwhile, Deuba was supported by NC leader Ramchandra Paudel along with other leaders including Prakash Man Singh, and Bimalendra Nidi among others.
The election that was scheduled to take place at 8:00 am today was delayed for about an hour due to a disagreement over whether cell phones should be permitted in the voting booth.
NC Parliamentarians who had been elected were asked to show up for the vote along with their election certificate.The NC is the only one of the seven national political parties to hold elections to select its PP leader. Other parties, meanwhile, had chosen their PP leader in unanimity.
