Kathmandu. Santosh Kunwar has been elected president of the Non-Resident Nepali Association (NRNA), Australia.

Kunwar defeated Sanjeev Dhakal Gorkhali and Bhairab Dhakal by huge margins in the election held on Saturday.

He defeated Sanjeev Gorkhali Dhakal (2126) from Northern Territory and Bhairab Dhakal from Perth (Western Australia) (3727). Kunwar received 6,839 votes out of 13,701 votes cast from Australia, which has 16,121 voters.

Kunwar, who has been holding various responsibilities in the NRNA for almost a decade, was earlier the general secretary of the nrna. Kunwar, who is contesting the election with a panel, said his goal is to make the organization investment-friendly, transparent and participatory. Stating that this victory was a victory for the members of the entire association, he declared that he would always do justice to this belief.

At the same time, Kunwar will pursue an ambitious plan to bring in grants from the federal and state governments in Australia and ensure the source of $2 million. Kunwar has previously served as state coordinator (2017-2019), ICC member (2019-2021) and Oceania regional deputy coordinator (2021-2023) of NRNA Australia.

Kunwar has also planned to expand successful projects such as Nepal Festival and sports events as model programs. He plans to construct the Nepali Multicultural Centre under NRNA Australia through partnership with donor agencies.

Babin Mishra, who is also the current spokesperson of NRNA Australia, has been elected vice-president. He got 7,261 votes while another candidate Ramesh Poudel got 4,619 votes. Similarly, Chunmani Sapkota was elected general secretary from Canberra. Another candidate Bharat Mani Devkota of Sydney got 3253 votes and current treasurer Arjun Gautam got 1814 votes.

Nijan Chaulagain was elected treasurer. He got 7087 votes while Luna Shiwakoti got 4756 votes. Similarly, Kalyan Khadka won the secretary’s post with 7,180 votes.