March 17: Janata Samajbadi Party ( JSP) Nepal's parliamentary party leader and former minister Ram Sahaya Prasad Yadav has been elected the Vice President of Nepal on Friday.

In the voting held on Friday, Yadav won the post of the Vice-president by defeating Astalaxmi Shakya of CPN (UML) and Mamata Jha of the Janamat Party.

The three were in the race for the Vice-Presidential election. Yadav had received support from the Nepali Congress, CPN (Maoist Centre), the CPN (Unified Socialist) including the ruling alliance in the election for the third Vice –President. Yadav has garnered 30,328 weighted votes. He received votes of 184 federal and 329 provincial lawmakers.

The voting that had begun at 10:00 am today concluded 3:00 pm and a total of 311 federal lawmakers and 518 Provincial Assembly members took part in the voting.

The number of voters was 332 from the Federal Parliament and 550 from the Province level in the Vice-President's election. The voting weightage of a Federal Parliament member is 79 followed by 48 of a PA member.

The polling centre for the election was set up at the New Baneshwor-based Federal Parliament Building. According to the Constitution, the functions to be performed by the President shall be performed by the Vice-president during the absence of the President and the term of the Vice President is five years from the date which he or she is elected. ---RSS