News World Maoist party in Nepal rejects elections

Maoist party in Nepal rejects elections

Katmandu, Nepal : Nepal's Maoist party, which appeared to be losing during initial ballot counting from this week's election, demanded Thursday that the vote counting be stopped because of what is says were massive irregularities.United


More than 70 percent of the 12 million eligible voters cast their votes during Tuesday's election to choose the 601-member Constituent Assembly that would double as the parliament.


Officials called the election successful and mostly free of violence, although a bomb blast near a polling station in Katmandu injured three people and police had to fire into the air in one village when opposition activists stormed a polling station. Pre-election violence injured at least 30 people after an alliance of 33 opposition parties vowed to disrupt the polls and blocked transport routes.

Final election results will take at least a week. None of the political parties is predicted to win a majority and a coalition government is likely, which could take days to form after the final results are announced.

The last assembly, elected in 2008, failed to come up with a constitution because of squabbling among political leaders over who got to lead the nation. They also disagreed on creating a federal system divided by ethnic groups or by geography. The resulting power vacuum has left Nepal without a proper constitution for nearly seven years.

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