Nation gets its first president

Nepal’s Constituent Assembly has elected the country’s first president, rejecting a candidate backed by former Maoist rebels.

Ram Baran Yadav is a physician of the Madheshi ethnic group in southern Nepal, which has been campaigning for greater rights and more say in the administration, said assembly Chairman Kul Bahadur Gurung.

Yadav’s victory was a blow for the former Maoists, who won the most seats in the assembly in April elections and hope to form the country’s new government with one of their members as prime minister. But they first need to form a coalition government because they failed to win a simple majority.

The assembly abolished Nepal’s centuries-old monarchy in May.