Voting is underway at the Parliament building in New Baneshwar, Kathmandu to elect a new President.

This is the third presidential election in Nepal since the country became a republic in 2008.

Two former Speakers, Ram Chandra Paudel of the Nepali Congress and Subas Chandra Nembang of the CPN-UML, are in the fray for the largely ceremonial office.

Paudel has the backing of an alliance of nine political parties including the ruling CPN (Maoist Centre) while the UML has fielded Nembang.

As many as 332 federal lawmakers and 550 provincial lawmakers are eligible to cast their votes in the election.

A total of 884 members make up the Electoral College for the presidential election, including 275 members of the House of Representatives, 59 of the National Assembly and 550 of the seven provincial assemblies.

In the election for President, a vote cast by a member of both upper and lower houses will be considered to have the weight of 79 votes, whereas the vote cast by a member of the provincial assembly has the weight of 48 electoral votes.

The total weightage of the Electoral College is 52,786 votes if no seat in the federal parliament and provincial assembly is vacant. A candidate must secure majority votes to be elected.

Although the post of President is largely ceremonial, Nepal’s political parties have lately shown a growing interest in the post owing to the discretionary powers the constitution accords to the post.