Nepal votes in country's first post-royal president
Updated
Lawmakers in Nepal have voted in the country's first post-royal president, rejecting a candidate backed by the former rebel Maoists.
Ram Baran Yadav, who was backed by the centrist Nepali Congress party, won 308 votes cast in Nepal's constitutional assembly.
State television says die-hard republican Ramraja Prasad Singh, the candidate backed by the Maoists, won 282 votes.
Although the presidency is a largely ceremonial position, the development could delay efforts by the Maoists - who hold the most assembly seats but not a majority - to form Nepal's first republican government.
