Senior leader of the Nepali Congress Ram Chandra Poudel has been elected the President of Nepal.

Poudel won the presidential election by defeating his contender CPN UML's Subas Chandra Nemwang in the election held on Thursday.

Election Commission informed that the president-elect Poudel received 33,802 vote weightage whereas Nemwang garnered 15,518 vote weightage.

The President is elected by an electoral college consisting of the members of the Federal Parliament (House of Representatives and the National Assembly) and the Provincial Assembly. A total of 313 members of the Federal Parliament and 518 Provincial Assembly members took part in the vote today.

The vote weightage of a Federal MP is 79 and that of a member of the Provincial Assembly is 48.

Voting took place from 10 am to 3 pm today.

Former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Poudel was a common candidate of CPN (Maoist Center), CPN (Unified Socialist), Janata Samajwadi Party Nepal, Loktantrik Samajbadi Party Nepal, Janmat Party, Nagarik Unmukti Party, Rashtriya Janamorcha and Nepal Samajbadi Party along with his party, the Nepali Congress.

Also a former Speaker and Chairperson of the Constituent Assembly, Nemwang represented the CPN-UML.

The term of office of the President is five years and he/she can be elected for not more than two terms, as per the constitutional provision.