The Election Commission has scheduled the Vice President election for March 17, and the nomination registration for the election will begin at 9 am on Saturday.

The Election Commission (EC) on Friday directed the Election Officer to register the candidates of a different gender or community from that of the President-elect for the Vice-Presidential post.

Since President-elect Ram Chandra Poudel is a male from the Khas-Arya hill community, the Vice President should be from a different gender or community, said EC’s Spokesperson Shaligram Sharma Poudel on Friday.

The EC has asked the parties in the Parliament to file their candidates representing different gender or community from the President-elect, as per the spirit of the Constitution.

According to the Constitution, the Vice President must be from either a gender or community different from the President-elect.

As per the provision of the President and Vice President Elections Act-2074, the Vice President must now be a candidate from different gender (female or other) or from a different community (Dalit, indigenous, Madhesi, Tharu or Muslim), said Sharma.

Since the EC has not mentioned specified gender-female- for the candidature of Vice President post, there are chances that the next Vice President could be elected from the same gender of the President-elect.

Earlier, while forming the new alliance, the eight parties have reached a understanding to give the post of Vice President to Janata Samajwadi Party-Nepal (JSP-N).

The JSP-N on Thursday decided to pick its Parliamentary Party (PP) leader Ram Shaya Prasad Yadav as its Vice President candidate.

Likewise, one of the ruling alliance partners, Nagaraik Unmukti Party, had forwarded the name of its chairperson Ranjita Shrestha as candidate of the Vice President.

However, she is ineligible for the post due to the age requirement.

According to the law, any individual willing to contest the election of the Vice President must be at least 45 years of age. But Shrestha is only 39 years old.

Meanwhile, Presidential candidate Subas Nembang submitted his election expenses details to the Office of the Election Officer on Friday.

According to the Office of the Election Officer, the CPN-UML vice-chairman who contested Thursday’s Presidential election submitted his expenditure statement through his representative Mahesh Kumar Bartaula.

Nembang submitted the expenditure of Rs. 16,500 to the office. According to his statement, he spent Rs.10,000 for publicity purpose while sending SMS to the voters of the Presidential election and Rs. 6,500 was spent on miscellaneous purposes.

He submitted the expenditure details as per the existing provision. The candidate must submit the expenditure statement to the EC within 30 days after the announcement of the election results.

The Section 62 of President and Vice President Election Act has limited expenses of a candidate to Rs. 100, 000.