Polls close in Nepalese elections

Описание: (10 Apr 2008) SHOTLIST

1. Various of election official sealing ballot box
2. Close of seal
3. Wide of security at polling station
4. Wide of security carrying ballot boxes followed by election officials carrying other election material
5. Mid of ballot boxes being loaded on truck
6. Various of trucks carrying ballot boxes arriving at counting centre
7. Wide of press conference held by Chief Election Commissioner Bhoj Raj Pokhrel
8. SOUNDBITE (Nepali) Bhoj Raj Pokhrel, Chief Election Commissioner:
"The polling of the Constituent Assembly members in all polling stations of 239 constituencies was held peacefully across the country. A few incidents took place in some places. The total turnout of the voters is estimated to be around 60 per cent."
9. Wide of police jeep carrying ballot boxes arriving at counting centre
10. Wide of party workers, security and media outside the counting centre

STORYLINE

Nepalis voted Thursday in a historic election intended to bring communist insurgents into the country's democratic mainstream and expected to end the world's last Hindu monarchy.

Voters lined up before dawn across the country, undeterred by violence that marred the days preceding the country's first election in nine years.

And while voting was smooth throughout much of the Himalayan country, there was scattered violence.

"A few incidents took place in some places," said Bhoj Raj Pokhrel, Chief Election Commissioner.

Two men were killed, including an independent candidate, a polling station was torched, and another candidate escaped an assassination attempt.

Voter turnout was about 60 percent, Pokhrel said.

He added that polling was suspended at about 33 stations, adding that officials would decide in the next week when to rerun those votes.

Among the places where voting was called off were a few stations in the eastern Ramechap district where Maoists blocked representatives of other parties from observing the vote, said the Home Ministry.

The election of a Constituent Assembly to write a new constitution has been touted as the cornerstone of a 2006 peace deal struck with former rebels known as Maoists following weeks of unrest that forced Nepal's king to end his dictatorship and restore democracy.

Security was tight with 17.6 million people registered to vote at about 20,000 polling stations, some of them a seven-day walk from the nearest paved road.

The election was being monitored by some 100,000 observers, including former U.S. President Jimmy Carter.

Disturbances were reported in at least in a number of remote areas.

In the southeastern town of Balana, unidentified attackers shot an independent candidate, Sambhu Prashad Singh, in the face outside a polling station, killing him, said the area's top official.

Police were investigating but had no suspects, he said.

Motorcycle-riding gunmen shot at another candidate in the southern town of Janakpur but she escaped unhurt, said a district officer.

In the central village of Galkot, Maoists tried to take over a polling station and then torched the building after scuffling with police and election officials, said the area's top official.

Police later arrested 15 men, seizing three grenades and a knife.

Maoist officials in Katmandu said they were trying to verify the report, but insisted there was no concerted effort on their part to undermine the election.



However, significant challenges remain after the election of the 601-seat Constituent Assembly, which will govern Nepal and rewrite the country's constitution.

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