Gex
28 OCT, 2015 : Bidhya Bhandari got elected as the president of Republic of Nepal after the adoption of a landmark constitution last month. She is the second president to sit on the position and the first ever woman president of the country.
Ms Bhandari, currently the vice-chair of the ruling Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist Leninist), defeated her opponent Kul Bahadur Gurung of the Nepali Congress by securing 327 to 214 votes to become the Himalayan nation’s ceremonial head of state.
A former defence minister, Ms Bhandari is a cancer survivor and widow of late communist leader Madan Bhandari, who died in 1991 in a yet unexplained road accident.
“I announce that Bidhya Devi Bhandari has been elected to the post of Nepal’s president,” said Speaker Onsari Gharti Magar, to loud cheers from lawmakers.
Ms Bhandari, a rare female face in Nepal’s parliament, took up politics in her teens, seeking to overturn the absolute monarchy and later marrying a fellow communist, Madan Bhandari.
But it was after her husband’s death in a vehicle accident in 1993 that the mother of two became a prominent voice, riding a wave of sympathy to win a seat in parliament.
