Nepal Maoists lose presidential vote

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.