Nepal parliament elects first female president

KATHMANDU, Oct. 28 (Xinhua) -- Nepal's parliament on Wednesday elected Bidhya Devi Bhandari, Vice Chairperson of the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist), as the country's first female president.

Bhandari, 54, has been the second president of the Himalayan country after it became the federal democratic republic in 2008 ending a 240-year Monarchy.

The election came after the Himalayan country promulgated a new constitution on Sept. 20.

Bhandari secured 327 votes to become the president when 541 lawmakers cast ballots out of 597 in the presidential election while her rival, Nepali Congress leader Kul Bahadur Gurung garnered 214 votes.

Bhandari has replaced Ram Baran Yadav who was appointed on July 23, 2008 as the country's first head of the state.

Bhandary, a communist leader in Nepal belonging to the country's second largest party CPN (UML), secured majority votes as she was backed by the third largest party UCPN-Maoist, the fourth largest party Rashtriya Prajatantra Party (Nepal) and other fringe parties in the Nepali Parliament.

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Feature: Nepali new woman head of state marks breakthrough for women in South Asia

By Shristi Kafle

KATHMANDU, Oct. 28 (Xinhua) -- Nepal's CPN (UML)'s Vice President Bidhya Devi Bhandari has been elected as the first female president of Nepal on Wednesday, the first time in the history of the patriarchy-backed Himalayan nation to grace the title of head of state to any woman.

Bhandari's election as the state head for five years has been taken positively across the country where women comprise more than half of the country's 28 million populations but still treated as second-class citizens.  Full story