Vote counting in the vice-presidential election has begun after the end of voting on Friday afternoon.
The vote took place in the Lhotse Hall of the Federal Parliament building in New Baneshwar, Kathmandu, from 10 am to 3 pm on Friday.
A total of 829 legislators, 311 federal legislators and 518 provincial assembly members, cast their votes in the election.
President Ram Chandra Paudel, MP Prem Suwal of the Nepal Workers and Farmers Party, Nepal Congress MP Manorama Sherchan and 14 MPs from the Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) did not take part in the vote.
CPN (Maoist Center) legislator Barsha Man Pun and Nepali Congress legislator Chandra Bhandari were unable to vote because they are undergoing treatment.
CPN-UML lawmaker Laxmi Koiri is on the run, while Janata Samajwadi Party lawmaker Shahnaz Rahman died in February.
The Electoral Commission plans to announce the result at 6 pm
JSP leader Ram Sahay Prasad Yadav is the ruling coalition’s common candidate for vice president, while UML has fielded Ashta Laxmi Shakya and Janamat Party has fielded Mamata Jha.
Yadav is supported by the Nepal Congress, CPN (Maoist Centre), CPN (United Socialist) and other ruling coalition partners, while Jha is supported by Nagarik Unmukti Party, Loktantrik Samajwadi Party and Rastriya Swatantra.
Federal legislators, including members of the House of Representatives (HoR) and the 59-member National Assembly (NA), receive a weighting of 79 for each vote, while provincial legislators receive a weighting of 48.
The weight of each federal legislator is calculated by dividing the total population of the country (according to the 2011 census) by the total number of legislators (334) and dividing that number by 1,000.
The weight of each provincial deputy is also calculated in a similar way by replacing the total number of federal deputies with that of provincial deputies (550).
The weighted vote total for the vice president election is 52,707, including 26,307 for federal legislators and 26,400 for provincial legislators. The candidate who receives 26,354 weighted votes is elected vice president.
If no candidate wins a majority in the election, a runoff is held between the two main candidates.
