Vidya Devi Bhandari was today elected as Nepal'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.