Sarbagya Wagle has been elected as the President of the International Nepali Literary Society (INLS). Wagle, who is also the international coordinator of Sahityapost, was declared elected through the election that took place from July 7 to 10.
An Election Committee for INLS, formed under senior journalist Gunraj Luitel, along with Commissioners Dr. Kavita Ghimire and Dr. Chudamani Khanal, made the results public and congratulated the elected candidates.
According to the election results announced by the committee, novelist Sarbagya Wagle won the election by defeating poet Vimala Niraula with a margin of 254 votes. Wagle, who was the outgoing Senior Vice President, received 859 votes, while his rival, the outgoing General Secretary Vimala Niraula, received 595 votes.
Similarly, literary figure Lal Gopal Subedi has been elected as Senior Vice President, securing the highest popular vote. He received 954 votes, while his rival Rajendra Kumar Shrestha received 488 votes.
Sarita Aryal, a candidate for Vice President from Nepal, won the election with 749 votes, defeating her competitor Dinesh Raj Gyawali, who received 675 votes.
Sudip Bhadra Khanal won the election for Vice President from the Americas cluster with 818 votes, defeating his rival Maheshwar Pant, who received 622 votes.
Likewise, Raju Sitaula was elected as General Secretary with 855 votes, while his opponent Krishna Kumar Giri received 584 votes.
Diliram Ammai from Europe, Ganesh Khadka from Africa, and Hariprasad Adhikari from Oceania were unanimously elected as Vice Presidents. Rabin Sharma was elected as Secretary and Tara Adhikari as Treasurer without opposition.
Similarly, Suman Barsha Ghimire, Pushpa Khanal, Deep Karki, Ratna Loksam Subba, and Tara Upreti were unanimously elected as members of the international committee of INLS.
The committee has a statutory provision to select two additional members.