One killed in poll-related violence
Polling was started at 7 am local time at over 22,000 polling centres and closed at 5 pm
Kathmandu: Millions of Nepalese began voting on Sunday to elect a new parliament and provincial assemblies amid tight security, hoping to end the political instability that has plagued the country for more than a decade and impeded growth.
The polling started at 7 am local time at over 22,000 polling centres and will close at 5 pm. Nearly 60 per cent polling was recorded on Sunday in Nepal's parliament and provincial assemblies elections, marred by sporadic violence and clashes that left one person dead and disrupted voting at several polling stations, official sources said.
The polling started at 7 am local time at over 22,000 polling centres and closed at 5 pm.
More than 17.9 million voters were eligible to cast their votes to elect a 275-member House of Representatives.
Barring a few sporadic incidents of violence, the voting remained largely peaceful.
One person was killed after being shot dead at a polling station in Nateshwari Basic School of Tribeni Municipality in Bajura. The 24-year-old man was shot dead by the police following a dispute after the voting was over, officials said. A minor explosion took place near Sharda Secondary School polling station in Dhangadhi Sub-metropolitan City in Kailali district. However, there was no casualty, officials said, adding that voting continued in the polling station despite the incident with just half-an-hour interruption. Some incidents of heated arguments between party cadres were reported from 11 areas in Dhangadi, Gorkha and Dolakha districts. However, it did not affect the polling, they said.
Prime Minister and Nepali Congress (NC) president Sher Bahadur Deuba cast his ballot in his home district Dadeldhura. He voted at the Ashigram Secondary School polling centre at Ruwakhola in Ganyapdhura rural municipality-1 in the morning. Deuba had studied at this school. Deuba has continuously won the election from Dadeldhura since 1991. He is running for the federal parliament member for the seventh time in this election, The Himalayan Times newspaper reported.
Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist) chairman and former prime minister K P Sharma Oli cast his ballot at the polling centre situated in Suryabinayak Municipality in Bhaktapur district near Kathmandu.
CPN-Maoist Centre chairman and former prime minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal "Prachanda" cast his vote at the polling centre located at Bharatpur Municipality in Chitawan district.
Speaking to the media after voting from a polling station in Bhaktapur, Chief Election Commissioner Dinesh Kumar Thapaliya said the counting will start at 9 pm Sunday after collecting all the ballot boxes.
Thapaliya said the commission would announce all the first-past-the-post results in the next eight days while the results of proportional representation elections would be announced by December 8.
"It is most likely that the next government will be formed under the leadership of the Nepali Congress and I will contest for the post of Parliamentary Party leader to forward my claim for the top executive position," NC general secretary Gagan Thapa said after casting his vote in Kathmandu constituency No. 4. Another NC leader and former deputy prime minister Prakash Man Singh said the leaders of the five-party alliance will sit together to decide who will lead the next government and chalk out the future course of action.
