Voting is underway to elect the new President of the country. The election process began at 10am on Tuesday morning and will conclude at 3pm.

Incumbent President Bidya Devi Bhandari is facing Nepali Congress leader Kumari Laxmi Rai for the post of the head of the state.

The early prediction indicates President Bhandari will be re-elected with an overwhelming majority since her nomination is backed by the ruling left alliance, CPN-UML and CPN (Maoist Centre), the Sanghiya Samajbadi Forum-Nepal and other fringe parties.

Technically, a total of 334 members of the federal parliament, comprising 275 members of the House of Representatives, 59 of the National Assembly, and 550 members of Provincial Assemblies can vote in Tuesday’s election. But three nominees of the National Assembly will be out from the voting process because their appointments have been challenged at the Supreme Court. House of Representative member Resham Chaudhary, who is in police custody in connection to the 2015 Tikapur carnage, will not be voting as well. Ditto for Rajib Gurung aka Deepak Manange who has is on the run after he was convicted in an attempted murder case. 

According to the Act for the Election of President and Deputy President, each vote of lawmaker in the Federal Parliament will have a weightage of 79 and those from Provincial Assemblies 48.

With 148 lawmakers in the Federal Parliament and 243 in Provincial Assemblies, the CPN-UML commands a total vote of 23,356.

CPN (Maoist Centre) has 65 lawmakers in the Federal Parliament and 108 in Provincial Assemblies, which account for 10,319 votes.

The NC, which has 76 seats in the Federal Parliament and 113 in Provincial Assemblies, has a total vote of 11,428.

As Sanghiya Samajbadi Forum-Nepal and other fringe parties also deciding to support President Bhandari, she could easily garner 26,921 votes for her re-election.

An electoral college, including the members of federal parliament and provincial assemblies, will vote in the election that will be held in Parliament building. The voting is expected to take place between 10 am to 3 pm, and the results would be made public on Wednesday, according to Bharat Raj Gautam, spokesperson at Parliament Secretariat.