Kathmandu, July 17: Parties are burning midnight oil in a bid to find a suitable candidate for the presidential post.

The Maoists and the Unified Marxist Leninist (UML) leaders held meeting to decide their stand over who should become the first president of the republic Nepal.

Maoist chairman Prachanda said that his party would reach an understanding with the UML on this issue today.

The Nepali Congress (NC), UML, Maoists and Madhesi parties are expected to hold joint and separate meetings as only two days remain for election.

Besides, the Maoists and UML are holding their top-level internal meetings.

Candidates will file their nomination papers by 1:00 p. m. today. The final list of candidates will be published at 5:00 p. m.

On Friday, the parties will conduct a campaign to attract a large number of voters. A day after, the election will be held between 11:00 a. m. and 2:00 p. m.

Results will be announced by the Constituent Assembly on the same day.

The president can be elected by a simple majority. If none of the candidates gets a majority, the top two candidates will head for a second round of voting.

Only the Constituent Assembly members are eligible to vote in the election, nepalnews. com reported. (ANI)