Nepal vote counting begins after high poll turnout

Nepalese officials begin counting votes with analysts hailing the high turnout in polls and cementing a peace process.


KATHMANDU - Nepalese officials began counting votes Wednesday, with analysts hailing the high turnout in polls seen as vital in stabilising the country and cementing a peace process seven years after a civil war ended.

Millions of Nepalis cast their ballots on Tuesday for a constituent assembly tasked with writing a new constitution, defying threats of poll violence by a breakaway faction of the Maoist party.

"The vote counting has begun," Election Commission spokesman Bir Bahadur Rai told AFP. Preliminary results are likely to emerge within three days, with full results expected in about ten days.

Local press praised the turnout, which the commission pegged at 70 percent, as a "terrific start" to the process ahead, while analysts said it raised hopes of ending a prolonged political crisis in the impoverished Himalayan nation.

"Election peaceful, outstanding voting," exulted the Nepali-language Rajdhani Daily in its front-page headline.

Lokraj Baral, executive chairman of the Kathmandu-based Nepal Centre for Contemporary Studies, said the turnout was "a message for peace and political stability".

"Voters have risked their lives and travelled to their home just to cast their ballots and be part of the democratic process," Baral told AFP.

Preliminary figures show a higher turnout than the 63.29 percent registered in the country's 2008 elections, the first since the end of the 10-year war, when former Maoist rebels entered politics and swept the polls.

Since then, a string of coalition governments have squabbled, split and failed to write a draft constitution, forcing the collapse of the assembly in May 2012 and leaving the country frustrated over the lack of progress.

"Whosoever wins the elections, the Nepali people have already spoken out loud and clear: that they are willing to give the unfinished task of transition yet another go," an editorial in The Kathmandu Post said.

A Himalayan Times editorial warned lawmakers that it was "time for political parties to abandon their political bickering in earnest".

"They cannot be as irresponsible as they had been earlier. The petty partisan interest must make way for broader national interests," the editorial said.

The political infighting which followed the 2008 elections included a split within the Maoist party, and the splinter Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist (CPN-M) led a 33-party alliance, which announced it would boycott polls and intimidate voters.

In recent days, protestors have torched vehicles, planted crude bombs and hurled explosives at traffic, leading to more than 370 arrests and one death.

Political analyst Baral said the turnout showed that Nepalis "have clearly rejected the notion of forced boycotts and strikes".

"Not only the hardline faction, but also all other parties that organise strikes, the voters have expressed how much they hate it," he said.

The frequent strikes called by political parties have had an impact on Nepal's economy, stifling tourism and sending its GDP growth plummeting from 6.1 percent in 2008 to 4.6 percent last year, according to World Bank data.

Nepal's imposing neighbour, India, which has traditionally exerted huge political influence in the country, called the turnout "impressive" in a foreign ministry statement late Tuesday.

India, which provided logistical support to election officials, said the vote was an "important step towards realising Nepal's goal of a democratic and prosperous future".

More than 100 parties, including three major ones -- the Unified Marxist-Leninist, the Nepali Congress and the Maoists -- have fielded candidates for the constituent assembly, which will also serve as a parliament.

By AFP