Vice-president of Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist Leninist) Bidhya Devi Bhandari has been elected the country's first female president, defeating veteran Nepali Congress leader Kul Bahadur Gurung.

The former defence minister, Bhandari won 327 votes in the parliament, 28 more than the required 299 votes to win. She was supported by 14 political parties besides her own, said The Himalayan Times. Bhandari is the country’s second president after it became a republic in 2008.