The election gave a stunning blow to the Maoists, who had emerged as the undoubted winners in the national elections held in April, with their candidate, 73-year-old revolutionary Ram Raja Prasad Singh, falling behind his main rival, Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala’s man Ram Baran Yadav.

Yadav, the dark horse in the race whose prospects of winning the historic election received a fillip only on Saturday morning after his Nepali Congress (NC) party succeeded in cobbling a last-minute poll pact with the communists and the Terai parties, was cheated of victory by just four votes.

The 61-year-old veteran politician, who was a former minister and has roots in the neighbouring India, garnered 294 votes, failing to harvest the 298 required for winning the poll. Ram Raja Prasad Singh won 284 votes. Now a repoll will have to be held between Yadav and Singh. The constituent assembly, that also doubles up as Nepal’s caretaker parliament, was scheduled to sit later Saturday evening to announce a date for the re-election.

Vice-president

The house however chose the nation’s first vice-president successfully. Parmanand Jha, a former Supreme Court judge who at the centre of a controversy over a disputed verdict and was transferred to a district court as punishment, sailed through the four-cornered contest after being backed by the Terai parties.

The election became a complicated mathematical affair with only 578 lawmakers taking part. Sixteen members from four minor parties boycotted the exercise in protest.

As per the Constitution, the president has to be elected by a simple majority in the house since the parliamentary parties failed to reach a consensus. The three candidates in the ring, including communist-backed Ram Preet Paswan, had a target of 298 votes.

As the voting started on Saturday morning, it seemed Yadav would swing the election after the NC, the Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist Leninist (UML) and the Terai parties reached a poll agreement.

As the NC has 113 seats, the UML 108 and the Terai parties 82, it was expected that Yadav would have an easy victory.

Secret ballot

However, the secret ballot is likely to have seen some of the members go against their party whips to support the Maoist candidate.

Prestige issue

In less than a week, the pendulum swung widely in the election for a post that, though ceremonial, is now also a prestige issue and will indicate the fate of the new government.

The race started when the name of Koirala, regarded as the chief architect of the pact with the Maoist insurgents that brought peace to violence-hit Nepal, was proposed for the post by party.

However, it was fiercely opposed by the Maoists, who feared Girija Prasad Koirala’s appointment would create a formidable rival for the new government, which they expect to lead.