Nepal votes in first local election in 20 years
Nepal held local level polls yesterday, the first since 1997 and a key step in the country's rocky transition to democracy over a decade since the end of the civil war.
Around a third of registered voters across three provinces were eligible to cast their vote, with the rest of the country due to vote in a month's time.
The vote has been split into two phases because of unrest in the southern plains bordering India, where the minority Madhesi ethnic group is refusing to take part until an amendment to the constitution is passed.
Local representatives were last elected in 1997 and their five-year terms expired at the height of the brutal Maoist insurgency.
The 10-year war ended in 2006 and the country began a fraught transition from a Hindu monarchy to a secular federal republic, which has seen it cycle through nine governments.
The long gap between polls has left an institutional void at the local level, which has seen graft become a way of life in Nepal, hampering the delivery of basic services as well as the recovery from a devastating 2015 earthquake.
"It is difficult to expect much from our politicians -- they have always been selfish and not worked for the people -- but I hope that with this election things will change," housewife Shova Maharjan, 41, told AFP after casting her vote in the capital.
Polls opened at 7:00 am (0115 GMT) and closed at 5:00 pm, with each voter casting their ballot for seven local representatives: mayor, deputy mayor, ward chairman and four ward committee members.
Nearly 50,000 candidates were standing for election across 283 local municipalities in the first phase, with many registered as independents or with a number of small reformist parties hoping to grab some votes from the traditional political heavyweights.
There were sporadic reports of violence yesterday with one person killed when police opened fire on a group attempting to raid a polling station in Dolakha district.
Comments