The New Nation - Internet Edition

AFP, Kathmandu

Lawmakers in Nepal on Monday voted in the country's first post-royal president, Ram Baran Yadav, rejecting a candidate backed by the Maoists, state television said.

Yadav, who was backed by the centrist Nepali Congress party, won 308 out of 590 votes cast in Nepal's constitutional assembly.

Die-hard republican Ramraja Prasad Singh, the candidate backed by the former rebels, won 282 votes, state television said.

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.