People defy odds in high turnout vote

KATHMANDU, NOV 20 - Threats from poll-opposing parties, violence and bombs failed to dampen people’s spirits as the country voted for the second Constituent Assembly on Tuesday. The election that saw a high turnout was largely peaceful, the Election Commission (EC) said. 

A preliminary estimation made by the EC showed around 70 percent of the voters braved their way to polling centres to cast their ballot on Tuesday. The turnout in the 2008 CA election was 63.29 percent. 

Many of the 12.21 million voters started queuing up at polling centres well before polling began at 7 am. 

“The election remained largely peaceful and the voter turnout was historic. The credit goes to the political parties, their candidates, voters and the media,” Chief Election Commissioner Neel Kantha Uprety told a press conference after polling was over at 5 pm. 

EC officials said no voter turned up in Thawang VDC of Rolpa district due to obstructions created by the poll-opposing CPN-Maoist party. In the VDC, the heartland of the former rebel Maoists where the insurgency began in 1994, leaders of the Mohan Baidya-led party had “convinced” people against voting. 

The only people to vote in Thawang, which has 1,787 voters, were the polling officers, who later returned with the empty ballot boxes to Liwang, the district headquarters. 

CPN-Maoist workers also barred people from voting in some districts, including Jajarkot and Dailekh. “With Thawang an exception, polling took place in all the 240 constituencies across the country,” said Uprety. 

The overall turnout in Rolpa, however, was 67.48 percent (35,490 votes) under the first-past-the-post (FPTP) and 69.57 percent (36,591 votes) under the Proportional representation system. 

Despite media reports on poll-related incidents in various districts like Gorkha, Dolakha, Siraha, Dailekh, Dhanusha and Sarlahi, the only vote cancelled in the day was that at the Tribhuwan Janata Higher Secondary School in Devpalgau VDC in Jumla. The vote was cancelled after workers of poll-opposing parties that included women and children fled with ballot boxes. 

According to the EC, counting of votes will begin on Wednesday. “We have left it to the district election offices to decide on when they can begin counting,” Uprety said. 

The Kathmandu and Bhaktapur election offices plan to start counting on Wednesday morning. 

The EC said it will take at least a week for the results of all the 240 constituencies to be out. 

Around 17,000 candidates (6,126 under the FPTP and 10,709 under the PR systems) belonging to 122 parties are in the fray for 575 CA seats.The remaining 26 members will be nominated by the Cabinet after the formation of the new CA. 

Election observers, the international community, civil society and stakeholders concerned, meanwhile, hailed Tuesday’s vote. They termed the polls an effort to bring back the derailed politics on track. 

Observers said the election was ‘remarkable’ in terms of turnout, especially at a time when poll-opposing forces were hell bent on disrupting the process. 

“The election remained largely peaceful, while the voter turnout was remarkable despite the dilemma, uncertainty and fear,” said General Secretary of the National Election Observation Committee Gopal Krishna Shiwakoti. He said the courage demonstrated by the voters was appreciable. The first CA elected in 2008 failed to promulgate a new constitution in four years, owing to differences among the major parties on key issues—federalism and forms of governance. This time around, the parties have vowed to accomplish the failed tasks within a year.