Nepal Elects Vidya Devi Bhandari as Nation's First Woman President

Communist leader Vidya Devi Bhandari was today elected as Nepal's first woman President by the parliament, weeks after it adopted a new landmark Constitution that declared the country a secular state. 

54-year-old Bhandari, the Vice-president of CPN-UML and widow of late general secretary of the party Madan Bhandari, secured 327 votes against 214 votes of her rival veteran Nepali Congress leader Kul Bahadur Gurung. 

"I announce that Vidya Devi Bhandari has been elected to the post of Nepal's president," Speaker Onsari Gharti Magar said, to loud cheers from lawmakers. 

She succeeds incumbent Ram Baran Yadav who was elected as the country's first President in 2008 after Nepal was declared a Republic following the abolition of a 240-year-old monarchy. 

With the promulgation of the Constitution on September 20, it was required to elect a new President within a month of the commencement of the Parliament session. 

In her first public statement as the President, Bhandari said the new Constitution would work for Nepal's sovereignty and independence during her tenure. 

She said the charter promulgated from the Constituent Assembly last month would protect sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity. 

She said her election was a step ahead in the process of implementing the Constitution as per its spirit.

Bhandari : First woman head of state in Nepal

Her victory was almost certain as 12 ruling parties including the third and fourth largest parties - UCPN (Maoist) and Rastriya Prajatantra Party-Nepal (RPP-N) - had pledged their support. Gurung received votes only from NC lawmakers. 

Bhandari is a close confidante of Prime Minister Khadga Prasad Oli, who was elected earlier this month and leads a coalition government. The president is the ceremonial head in Nepal while the prime minister is the nation's leader.

Bhandari began her political career with a leftist student movement in 1979. She then acquired membership of CPN (ML), went underground and fought against the party-less Panchayat system from Morang district.

She married the famed Communist leader Madan Kumar Bhandari.

After the end of Panchayat system and restoration of multi-party democracy in 1990, CPN (ML) became CPN (UML) after unification with CPN (Marxist) and her husband became General Secretary of the unified party.

Argentina Election : Shock as Macri Forces Scioli into Second Round

Mauricio Macri : Gave sudden shock to pole pandits

If there were any remaining doubts that progressive governments in Latin America are on the defensive, they were shattered last night with the poor result of the ruling Peronist camp in the Argentinian presidential elections. Daniel Scioli, the centre-left candidate endorsed by incumbent Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, was forced into a second-round runoff by his more market-orientated challenger Mauricio Macri from the Cambiemos (“Let’s Change”) bloc. For the first time in recent memory, the Front for Victory also lost control of the governorship of Buenos Aires province, which is home to one in four voters.

It was the worst night for the ruling camp since the Kirchners came to power in 2003 (Fernández succeeded her husband Néstor Kirchner in 2007; he died three years later). The gleeful headlines in the Argentinian newspapers, most of which are anti-Kirchner, said it all: “Surprises,” exclaimed Clarín. “Macri triumphant,” proclaimed Perfil. “Commotion in Kirchnerismo,” screamed the tabloid Muy. “Electoral disaster for Kirchnerismo,” noted La Prensa.

Daniel Scioli : Couldn't do as expected

When the preliminary results were announced the previous midnight, swaths of the Argentinian chattering classes were stunned into silence. In the press room at the Scioli bunker, journalists exclaimed in disbelief at the numbers flashing up on the screen. Macri was initially ahead, and although his lead slipped as the count came in, he ended less than 2.5 points behind a favourite who had been forecast to win comfortably. Polls had suggested that Scioli was within striking distance of the 10-point lead needed for an outright first-round win. Only hours earlier, TV exit surveys had predicted he would be ahead by a “wide margin”. They were laughably wrong.

Instead, he carries a far slimmer than expected majority into the second round and knows that he has a fight on his hands in key battlegrounds. Chief among them is Buenos Aires – a formerly Peronist stronghold that Scioli had run as governor. In arguably the greatest shock of the night, the race for his replacement was won by Macri’s opposition camp. The victor, María Eugenia Vidal, was ecstatic: “Today, we made the impossible possible. We are making history,” she said. This was largely due to a misjudgment by outgoing president Fernández, who had imposed her unpopular cabinet chief Aníbal Fernández, no relation, as the ruling bloc candidate. As a result, the Peronists lost the most populous state in Argentina. They were also hammered in Córdoba, where Macri won almost half of the vote

Ahead of the second round on 22 November, the momentum is now clearly with Macri, the son of Italian migrants, who went on to make a fortune in the construction industry and become the most successful president of Boca Juniors football club. “What has happened on this day changes the politics of this country,” he told cheering supporters, promising to work “morning, noon and night to earn [voters’] trust and demonstrate they made the right decision”.

Sergio Massa : Third place runner

The ruling camp, meanwhile, has to rethink its strategy. With the second-round campaign already under way, Scioli urged Peronists to demonstrate their traditional qualities of loyalty and indicated that he will try to reach out to unaffiliated voters. “United together, we will triumph,” Scioli declared in a rallying speech. “I call upon the undecided and independent voters to join this cause.” His aides, however, were clearly dismayed at the poor showing and said they would have to analyse and correct the weak points in their approach. The third-placed candidate, Sergio Massa, a dissident Peronist who won 21% of the vote, could now play the role of kingmaker. Having proclaimed himself in favour of change, it is thought that he is leaning towards the opposition, but he has said he will retreat for several days, draw up a list of priorities and then enter into negotiations regarding which side to support.

Fernández, who maintains a high level of support despite a tumultous period in office, will also be a key figure thanks to her strong backing from the unions and social movements. Her son Máximo was elected as a representative for the first time and her sister-in-law and close confidante Alicia won the governorship of Santa Cruz province in Patagonia.

She and Scioli will have to address the mistakes they made in the past few weeks and months, but they might also feel they are running up against an adverse historical tide. The regional situation has changed dramatically since the Kirchners entered the Casa Rosada presidential palace in 2003. That was around the peak of the so-called “pink wave” of populist leftwing leaders who took power in Latin America, including Hugo Chávez in Venezuela in 1998, Luíz Inácio Lula da Silva in Brazil in 2002, Evo Morales in Bolivia in 2005 and Rafael Correa in Ecuador in 2006. For most of the past 10 years, they benefited from strong economies thanks to rising commodity prices and strong demand from China, which funded welfare expansions, job creation and poverty reduction policies. But a downturn and growing allegations of corruption and mismanagement have eroded support.

President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner

 Most leftist administrations are still holding on, but only just. Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro, who has struggled with street protests and the world’s highest inflation since the death of Chávez, faces tough parliamentary elections in December. Dilma Rousseff, who replaced Lula, is battling impeachment, scandal and recession. Ecuador has been racked with protests this summer and has slashed growth forecasts. Only Morales appears relatively unscathed. In Argentina, the right are buoyant after last night’s upset. But the left are not out yet. The second-round campaign will be one of the greatest tests yet of the stamina of the progressive movement in Latin America.