March 3: Senior leader Ram Chandra Paudel of the Nepali Congress, the largest party in the House of Representatives, and Subas Chandra Nembang, the vice chairman of the second largest party, CPN-UML, are all set to contest in the presidential election on March 9.

After the registration of nominees, UML has intensified attempts to canvass votes for the election. On the other hand, the Nepali Congress seems to be in a comfortable position to secure majority votes with the backup of eight political parties. A new eight-party alliance has formed under the initiative of chairman of CPN (Maoist Center) Pushpa Kamal Dahal, who is also the prime minister, after his party decided to back NC candidate instead of UML.

The victory of NC candidate Paudel in the presidential election seems certain after receiving the votes of the coalition partners.

On the other hand, UML candidate Nembang is making attempts to turn the tide in his favour.

As the date of the election approaches, Nembang is meeting the leaders of various parties to canvass votes. On Thursday, he met CPN (Unified Socialist) Chairman Madhav Kumar Nepal and asked him to vote for him in the presidential election.

The CPN (Unified Socialist) is currently in the Nepali Congress-led eight-party alliance. The UML, which did not even want to recognize the party and did not even want to hear the name of the CPN United Socialist, sent a letter and asked for votes in favour of its candidate in the presidential election.

Similarly, Nembang also reached the office of Rastriya  Swatantra Party (RSP) Nepal led by journalist-turned-politician Rabi Lamichhaneto to seek for votes. Not only Nembang, UML Chairman KP Oli is also asking for votes for his candidate. Oli asked National Assembly member Bamdev Gautam, who is also a former UML leader, to vote for Nembang in the presidential election.

However, the Nepali Congress has not made much effort except to send a letter to the UML and ask for votes because the party is already enjoys majority support in parliament. Paudel, who is a strong candidate to win the presidential election with the support from eight parties, is also asking for votes. A few days ago, he met Rabi Lamichhane, chairman of the RSP Nepal and asked him to vote for him in the presidential election.

Poudel has written letters to all MPs asking for their votes.

Paudel is seeking for votes by expressing his commitment to institutionalize a democratic republic and inclusive democracy.

According to the legal provisions regarding the election of the president and vice president, the presidential candidate must receive a majority of the total votes. In the event that no candidate gets the majority votes, there will be a voting again.

How many votes with whom?

A total of 333 members of the Federal Parliament (House of Representatives and National Assembly) and 550 members of the Provincial Assembly will vote in the presidential election. According to the law, one vote of the federal MP will carry the weight of 79 votes. Based on this, the total vote share of 332 MPs of the Federal Parliament (the position of one MP has been vacant) will be 26,228. Rabi Lamichhane, chairman of the RSP, who was elected as a member of the House of Representatives from Chitwan-2, was suspended by the Supreme Court.

Similarly, the weight of votes of provincial assembly members is 48. Based on this, the total number of votes of the members of the provincial assembly is 26,400. That makes the total number of votes in the presidential election 52,628. On this basis, more than 26,314 votes are required to be elected as the president. The Congress-led eight-party alliance has 31,821 votes. In this situation, Nembang will get 20,807 votes even if he gets the votes of all the others parties outside the eight-party alliance.