Nepal lawmakers elect first female president

Nepal’s parliament has elected Bidhya Devi Bhandari, currently the vice-chair of the ruling Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist Leninist), as the country’s first female president.

On Wednesday, Bhandari defeated her opponent Kul Bahadur Gurung of the Nepali Congress Party by securing 327 to 214 votes, to become the Himalayan nation’s first female head of state.

In Nepal, the president is the ceremonial head of state, while the prime minister is the nation’s leader.

On October 12, the Nepalese parliament elected KP Sharma Oli, the chairman of the Communist Party as the new prime minister.

This comes after the adoption of a landmark constitution that took effect on September 20. The new document restructures Nepal as a federal state made up of seven provinces.

The document has drawn angry reactions from residents of southern Nepal, who argue that the new internal borders will discriminate against historically marginalized communities. Clashes between protesters and police have left 40 people dead.

The members of marginalized groups demand their own separate province. The groups include the Madhesi and Tharu ethnic minorities, who mainly inhabit the country’s southern plains.

The new administration is tasked with unifying the country amid domestic unrest. It will also have to reconstruct areas badly damaged by the spring quake, which left nearly 9,000 people dead and more than half a million homeless.

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