Nepal's 2 major parties vie for vice-presidential election

Nepal's two major parties have fielded candidacies in the vice-presidential election to be held on Saturday.

The largest party Nepali Congress registered the name of Amiya Kumar Yadav while the third largest party the UCPN (Maoist) fielded the name of Nanda Kishor Pun as their presidential candidates at the Parliament, on Friday, officials told Xinhua.

According to the Parliament Secretariat, the vice-presidential election results will be made public on Saturday itself. The new vice-president will replace Mr. Paramanand Jha who was elected as country's first vice-president on July 23, 2008.

UCPN (Maoist) candidate Pun is highly likely to become the Himalayan country's second vice-president as he is backed by the ruling parties which hold the majority seats in the Parliament, political observers in Kathmandu said.

Mr. Pun, who is currently a standing committee member of the UCPN (Maoist), played a key role as the deputy commander of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) during a ten-year-long civil war between the state and the Maoists party that ended in 2006.

Nepal is going to elect the second vice-president after it became federal democratic republic in 2008 ending a 240-year monarchy.

Source: XINHUA