Bhatta elected NRNA president

The eighth global conference of Non-Resident Nepali Association (NRNA) has elected Bhaban Bhatta as the new president for the next two-year term.
Bhatta – with 1,197 votes – has defeated Jamuna Gurung Ghale, who secured 584 votes, in the election held here today. Of the total 1854 voters, 1788 voters cast their ballots.
Jamuna Gurung Ghale is the better half of the incumbent president Shesh Ghale, who is completing his second two-year term. According to the statatue of the NRNA, one can not become president for the third term.
Bhatta, who has been associated with the non-resident Nepali movement since the beginning in 2003, as the executive member of the adhoc committee in 2003 while forming the organisation in Japan and served in various positions of the international coordination council (ICC) of the NRNA.
Bhatta has been living in Japan since the last 20 years. He owns chain restaurants and a resort in Japan. Bhatta has also invested in various sectors like hospitality, media, brewery, education, aviation and planning to invest in many more in Nepal.
After being elected as the new president of NRNA, Bhatta said that he will take forward the NRNA movement to second version, which he has named NRNA V.2, and work towards making a substantiative contribution to Nepal's economy. He said that every NRNs, despite their economic status, will get an opportunity to contribute to the socio-economic development of the country through a collective investment mechanism. Bhatta also said NRNA will forward the agendas including its own headquarters construction, smart NRNA academy, Laprak Model Settlement and joint investment.
Meanwhile, the global conference also elected Kumar Panta (Germany), Kul Acharya (UK) and Sapila Rajbhandari (Russia) as vice presidents. Panta had served as vice president in the earlier executive committee, whereas Acharya was coordinator for Europe region and Rajbhandari was women coordinator in the executive committee. Likewise, DB Chhetri and Janaki Gurung (secretary), Hikmat Bahadur Thapa (treasurer) and Somnath Sapkota (co-treasurer) from some 100 candidates, who were vying for 39 different posts in the new executive committee. The election committee informed Bhuma Devi Limbu won the Woman Coordinator post while Sudan Thapa claimed victory as Youth Coordinator.
A total of 1,854 delegates cast their votes in the election held late today at Hyatt hotel in Kathmandu for the executive committee of the NRNA that was established 14 years ago and now has spread in 77 countries.