Kathmandu, Nepal (BBN) – Nepali Congress candidate Ram Baran Yadav was elected the first president of the federal democratic republic of Nepal on Monday.

Constituent Assembly (CA) Chairman K.B Gurung announced in the Assemble on Monday evening that Dr. Yadav had been elected president by winning a simple majority.

Dr. Yadav, the General Secretary of the Nepali Congress, the second largest party in t Assembly, defeated Ram Raja Prasad Singh nominated by the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) (CPN-M), the single largest CA party, in the second-round presidential election held on the day.

The Nepali Congress candidate bagged 308 votes while his rival Ram Raja Prasad Singh, who was backed by the Maoists, ended up with 282 votes, local reports said.

Yadhav, a professional physician, spent more than two decades in hospitals in the country’s south Terai region before joining the movement of restoration of democracy in Nepal as a full-time politician in the 1990s.

Taking to reporters, Dr. Yadav said that he would work for strengthening democracy in the country.

BBN/SI/SI/AD-22JULY08-2.23AM