Bidya Devi Bhandari has been re-elected as the President of Nepal for a second term on Tuesday, The Kathmandu Posts reports .
Bhandari mustered 39,275 votes while her rival candidate Kumari Laxmi Rai, of the main opposition Nepali Congress, garnered 11,730 votes, EC Spokesperson Nawaraj Dhakal said.
CPN-UML leader Bhandari was elected as the first woman President of Nepal for the first time on October 28, 2015 by defeating Kul Bahadur Gurung of Nepali Congress.
The voting started at 10 am and concluded at 3 pm. The counting of votes began at 4 pm. A total of 862 votes were cast in the election. Dhakal said 326 members of federal parliament and 536 members of provincial assemblies voted cast their votes.
An electoral college, including the members of federal parliament and provincial assemblies, cast their votes in the election.
According to the Act for the Election of President and Deputy President, each vote of lawmaker in the Federal Parliament will have a weightage of 79 and those from Provincial Assemblies 48.
A total of 334 members of the federal parliament including 275 members of the House of Representatives and 59 of the National Assembly, and 550 members of Provincial Assemblies cast their votes in election.