AFP :
Nepalis across the country’s mountainous north voted Sunday in elections that may herald much-needed change after 20 ruinous years marked by a bloody Maoist insurgency, a devastating earthquake and crippling political instability.
Voters cast their ballot for representatives in new national and provincial parliaments in a historic vote that marks the final step of a drawn-out peace process, which began in 2006 with the end of the civil war.
The two-phase elections will establish the country’s first provincial assemblies as laid out in a post-war constitution that aims to devolve power from the top-heavy central governments to seven newly created provinces.
Nepal’s tumultuous transition from monarchy to democracy has been marred by crippling instability that has seen 10 leaders cycle through power in 11 years, hampering development and the recovery from the earthquake that struck in 2015.
The areas that were worst hit by the quake, which killed 9,000 and destroyed half a million homes, voted on Sunday with many people expressing hope that sluggish reconstruction efforts would be kickstarted by the political change.
“I hope to see more development and better services in our district,” said first-time voter Shanta Bhujel, 18, who cast his ballot in Chautara, a town east of the capital Kathmandu.
Polling station officials in Balefi, a rural community in northern Sindhupalchowk district, sealed the plastic ballot boxes as the polls closed at 5pm (1115 GMT) and loaded them into a truck to be transported to the district capital for storage.
Counting will only begin after the second phase of elections are held in the populous south on December 7 with results expected a few days later.
Elections were suspended and will be held again at two polling stations in western Rukum district after acid was sprinkled on ballot boxes damaging the papers inside, local official Bansi Kumar Acharya said.
Meanwhile, voting was temporarily halted in another polling centre in the northeast after an explosive device was found. No injuries were reported.
The isolated incidents follows sporadic violence that injured dozens in the lead up to the polls, mostly blamed on a splinter faction of the Maoist Party which pledged to disrupt the election.
Many in the impoverished Himalayan nation walked for hours to reach their nearest polling station, while in the remote west voters also braved sub-zero temperatures and snow.
Nepalis across the country’s mountainous north voted Sunday in elections that may herald much-needed change after 20 ruinous years marked by a bloody Maoist insurgency, a devastating earthquake and crippling political instability.
Voters cast their ballot for representatives in new national and provincial parliaments in a historic vote that marks the final step of a drawn-out peace process, which began in 2006 with the end of the civil war.
The two-phase elections will establish the country’s first provincial assemblies as laid out in a post-war constitution that aims to devolve power from the top-heavy central governments to seven newly created provinces.
Nepal’s tumultuous transition from monarchy to democracy has been marred by crippling instability that has seen 10 leaders cycle through power in 11 years, hampering development and the recovery from the earthquake that struck in 2015.
The areas that were worst hit by the quake, which killed 9,000 and destroyed half a million homes, voted on Sunday with many people expressing hope that sluggish reconstruction efforts would be kickstarted by the political change.
“I hope to see more development and better services in our district,” said first-time voter Shanta Bhujel, 18, who cast his ballot in Chautara, a town east of the capital Kathmandu.
Polling station officials in Balefi, a rural community in northern Sindhupalchowk district, sealed the plastic ballot boxes as the polls closed at 5pm (1115 GMT) and loaded them into a truck to be transported to the district capital for storage.
Counting will only begin after the second phase of elections are held in the populous south on December 7 with results expected a few days later.
Elections were suspended and will be held again at two polling stations in western Rukum district after acid was sprinkled on ballot boxes damaging the papers inside, local official Bansi Kumar Acharya said.
Meanwhile, voting was temporarily halted in another polling centre in the northeast after an explosive device was found. No injuries were reported.
The isolated incidents follows sporadic violence that injured dozens in the lead up to the polls, mostly blamed on a splinter faction of the Maoist Party which pledged to disrupt the election.
Many in the impoverished Himalayan nation walked for hours to reach their nearest polling station, while in the remote west voters also braved sub-zero temperatures and snow.
