On Saturday evening, Madhesi People's Rights Forum (MPRF) candidate Paramananda Jha was declared the first vice president of republican Nepal by the CA. However, none of the presidential candidates gathered simple majority support from Saturday's 578 voting CA members. Ram Baran Yadav on Saturday bagged 283 votes and Ram Raja Prasad Singh won 270 votes.

Since no single candidate won over half support (298 votes out of 594 CA member voters), two top candidates securing the largest number of votes, Ram Baran Yadav and Ram Raja Prasad Singh, came to contest again in the elections for the second round on Monday.

Nepal was declared a federal democratic republic at the first CA meeting on May 28, ending the 240-year Shah dynasty.

MPRF candidate Paramananda Jha won Saturday's election with support from the NC and the third largest CA party, the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist) (CPN-UML).

The three party went together when the CPN-M rejected NC's proposal for Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala and CPN-UML's proposal for its former general secretary Madhav Kumar Nepal to take the presidential post, and turned down to support MPRF's vice president claim.

After MPRF bagged vice presidential post, NC presidential post, the CPN-UML is expected to win the CA speaker on July 24, with the three-party alliance's support.

(Xinhua News Agency July 22, 2008)