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Nepal Begins Tallying Votes
The Associated Press
Friday 11 April 2008
Katmandu, Nepal - Authorities began the arduous task Friday of tallying votes
in Nepal's first election in nine years - a historic vote meant to secure lasting
peace in a land riven by communist insurgents and an autocratic king.
Scattered shootings and clashes that killed two people on election day Thursday
- and eight others in the days leading up to the poll - did not deter millions
of Nepalis from casting ballots.
The election of a 601-seat Constituent Assembly to write a new constitution
has been touted as the cornerstone of a 2006 peace deal struck with former rebels,
known as the Maoists, following weeks of unrest that forced Nepal's king to
cede power seized the year before.
The United Nations said the turnout was a display of ''overwhelming enthusiasm''
for the election that many hope will usher in a new era in this largely impoverished
and often violent country.
But getting through the election was just the first step toward a new beginning
for Nepal.
No party is expected to win a landslide, and with 20,000 voting stations spread
throughout the Himalayan land - some of them a seven-day walk from the nearest
paved road - officials say it could be several weeks before a complete tally
is ready.
With such a long a gap between the election and the results, there are fears
of instability and unrest as the parties jockey for position and contest what
piecemeal results do leak out.
On Friday, the Election Commission released the results for one seat in Katmandu,
which was won by the centrist Nepali Congress. The voting for that seat was
done electronically - most others were done with paper - allowing authorities
to tally the results quickly.
The commission said they received several complaints about the election from
candidates and there would be a new vote in at least 51 polling stations.
Commission spokesman Laxman Bhattarai said he expected that number to go up
as they investigate complaints. Several candidates have charged that their supporters
were barred from voting by rival groups or there were other fraud involved.
Dates for the re-votes would be fixed later.
Separately, a Nepali Congress supporter was shot in southwest Nepal village
on Friday.
Police official Tej Prasad Sharma said unidentified attackers opened fire,
wounding Mahendra Pathak at Chakatvisa village, about 190 miles southwest of
Katmandu. Police were searching for the attackers, who fled after the shooting.
The violence during the campaign and on election day could also provide a pretext
for any of the major parties - from the Maoists to centrist democrats to hard-core
royalists - to reject the poll's outcome.
There is also the complexity of the vote itself, a mix of direct elections
and a nationwide proportional representation system with quotas for women and
Nepal's myriad ethnic and caste groups.
International experts say it will be hard to sort out the results, and the
behavior of the losers will determine whether Nepal sees peace or more bloodshed.
Many expect the losers will include the Maoists, who are expected to place
behind Nepal's traditional electoral powers, the Nepali Congress and Communist
Party of Nepal (United Marxist-Leninist).
The U.N. says the Maoists have been behind a majority of the election-related
violence. They also have 20,000 former fighters camped across the country and
their weapons are stored in easily accessible containers under a U.N.-monitored
peace deal.
Observers also worry about armed minority ethnic groups on the southern plains
who want more autonomy. Violence there twice delayed the vote, although the
region is now relatively peaceful.
And then there is King Gyanendra.
The major parties have already agreed to abolish the 239-year-old monarchy
at the assembly's first sitting. But the king still has supporters in the upper
echelons of the army and among Hindu fundamentalists who see him as the incarnation
of the Hindu god Vishnu.
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