Jul 19, 2008, 16:53 GMT
Kathmandu - Nepal's powerful constituent assembly ordered a run-off election next week to choose the country first president after Saturday's vote failed to produce a clear winner.
An official release issued by the assembly gave Nepali Congress candidate Ram Baran Yadav 283 votes, 15 short of the 298 necessary to be elected president.
The Maoist backed candidate Ramraja Prasad Singh received 270 votes, prompting a two way contest between the two rivals.
'Since no candidate gathered a simple majority needed to be elected president, run-off election will take place on Monday morning at 8:00 am (0215 GMT),' Chairman of the assembly Kul Bahadur Gurung said.
The largely ceremonial post would install the head of state following the abolition of monarchy by the same assembly earlier this year.
Both candidates contesting the run off election are from the ethnic Madhesi community, which has a strong representation in southern Nepal and shows the growing strength of the community in Nepalese politics.
Maoist-backed Singh led a brief armed uprising against the monarchy, carrying out bomb attacks in several locations in Kathmandu, including the royal palace, 23 years ago.
He was sentenced to death in absentia by a court but was never captured and lived in exile in India.
Nepali Congress' Ram Baran Yadav is the party's general secretary and has been at the forefront of the its struggle for democracy.
Although the Nepalese assembly has 601 seats, there are currently only 598 members.
The assembly vote however elected Parmanand Jha of Madhesi People's Rights Forum as the first vice president of the country.
Jha secured 305 votes, to defeat Maoist candidate Shanta Shrestha.
Election officials had earlier said that 578 of the 598 registered members in the constituent assembly voted to choose the president in a three-way contest, with 12 members from the two parties boycotting the poll.
The period leading up to the voting was marred by growing political differences among the main ruling parties which has split the three-year-old alliance between them.
A last minute pact between the Nepali Congress, the Communist Party of Nepal - Unified Marxist Leninist (CPN-UML) and the Madhesi People's Rights Forum thwarted what till Friday evening had looked like a certain Maoist victory for presidential post.
The growing split among the main parties is also likely to impact the formation of the new government.
'If the Nepali Congress and its allies are able to muster the majority and elect their candidate as president, they can also stake their claim to form the government which needs a majority in the assembly,' political analyst Deepak Bhattarai said.
The Maoists emerged as the biggest party in constituent assembly with 220 seats but are well shot of a majority.
They have however, claimed that they should be allowed to form the government on the basis that the people have given them a mandate to lead the country.
The election marks Nepal's dramatic moves towards peace following the end of a Maoist insurgency nearly two and half years ago. 191740
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