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By Our Reporter

Nirmala Sharma has been elected the first woman president of the Federation of Nepali Journalists, the umbrella organisation of Nepal’s journalists, in its history of 69 years.

Sharma, a common candidate of the Press Union affiliated to the Nepali Congress and Press Chautari, affiliated to the CPN-UML, was elected FNJ president by defeating Ramesh Bista, a rebel candidate of the Press Union, who was backed by the Press Centre of the CPN (Maoist Centre) and other organisations. Sharma represents Press Chautari, and is said to be close to Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli.

Devi Prasad Sapkota and Lal Singh Lama were also in the fray. Bista was a close rival of Sharma.  Sharma was elected by garnering 4,282 votes while Bista got 3,203 votes. Likewise, Spakota got 270 votes and Lama 96.

Likewise, Deepak Acharya was elected senior vice president with 4230 votes, Nitu Pandit vice president with 4,705 and Ram Prasad Dahal general secretary with 4084 votes.

All these three are also the common candidates of Press Union and Press Chautari. 

The alliance of Press Union and Press Chautari won most of the seats in the central committee of the FNJ.

This time a massive polarisation was visible in the FNJ. When the two big parties—UML and NC—have formed the government in the centre and provinces, the two parties also forged alliance in the FNJ elections.  This is resulted in the alliance between rival organisations of journalists—the Press Union of NC and Press Chautari of the UML. As most journalists are divided into one or another party, it was natural for the alliance to sweep the elections. The alliance almost swept the elections with only a treasurer from the Press Centre among the office bearers of the central committee. Even the two organisations forged alliance in the district and province levels.

Now when journalists are guided by political parties, one cannot expect fair journalism and the FNJ may not dare to raise its voice against the government because the entire leadership is elected in the backing of the government or the ruling parties.

The election was held on Friday, and the final results were made public on Sunday night.

Earlier, Sharma was chair of Sancharika Samuha, an organisation of Nepali women journalists.