Nepali CA election voting ended on Thursday

KATHMANDU, April 10 (Xinhua) -- Voting for the election to the Constituent Assembly (CA) ended across the nation in Nepal on Thursday at 17:00 (1115 GMT).

Xinhua reporters in Nepali capital Kathmandu saw voting centers closed the doors, stopped Thursday's voting.

The Election Commission has confirmed that over 55 percent of the total registered voters have already cast their ballots until 4 p.m. for Thursday's CA elections, suggesting an adequate turnoutin the historical CA polls, but lower than expected.

One election official in charge of the voting center in front of southwest gate of the Royal Palace in Kathmandu told Xinhua, "613 citizens were expected to cast their votes here, but only more than 300 came to vote."

According to information from the Election Commission (EC) on Wednesday, there are 20,810 polling centers in 9,793 places to hold the election simultaneously and voters entering the polling center before 5:00 p.m. (1115 GMT) on Thursday will be able to exercise their voting rights.

Nationwide voting in Nepal began peacefully at 7:00 a.m. (0115 GMT) on Thursday for the election of much-awaited Constituent Assembly (CA), which will decide Nepal's future political setup and the fate of the monarchy.

However, the Nepali Election Commission has confirmed that CA election has been suspended at six different places throughout the country till 3:45 p.m. local time (1000 GMT).

Talking to Xinhua, spokesperson of the EC Laxman Bhattarai said that the EC can officially confirm of postponing the CA elections at six different polling stations in various districts of the country following disputes between the cadres of political parties and attempts of booth capturing.

In response to the query regarding local media house's report of polls being suspended at more than a dozen places throughout the country, the spokesperson said, "I don't know why some of the local websites posted such news because we never confirmed such reports."

He also told Xinhua there are many rumors being spread in connection of the CA polls adding that voting process in most of the places is taking place smoothly.

The EC Wednesday decided to reschedule the election programs for April 19 in constituency No. 1 of Surkhet district in mid-western Nepal, as the Communist Party Nepal (Unified Marxist- Leninist) (CPN-UML) candidate in the constituency Rhishi Prasad Sharma was shot dead, during a scuffle between the activists of Nepali Congress and CPN-UML on Tuesday night.

The Election to the Members of Constituent Assembly Act of Nepal provides that the EC can postpone the voting in case of a candidate's death.

The Thursday CA election, which was initially slated for June 20, 2007, was postponed and rescheduled for Nov. 22 after the Election Commission asked for more time to prepare the polls.

According to the agreement reached among Nepali political parties, 240 CA members will be elected through the first-past-the-post and 335 CA members from the proportional representational electoral system while another 26 CA members would be nominated in the 601-member Constituent Assembly.

The interim parliament of Nepal on Dec. 28, 2007 approved a bill for the third amendment to the interim constitution to declare the country a federal democratic republic. It will be implemented by the first meeting of the Constituent Assembly. The CA polls will be historic in Nepal.

There are 3,937 candidates, including 326 female party candidates, 42 independent women, 2,795 male party candidates and 774 independent males.

Some 126,000 staff and 108,000 volunteers were mobilized to manage the voting while some 130,000 security personnel including the Nepal Police, Armed Police and Temporary Police, were mobilized to ensure a smooth voting.