|
KATHMANDU, NEPAL - Results from a landmark vote on Nepal's political future were trickling in on Friday with a partial picture of the final result expected in 10 days, elections officials said.The polls were a key part of the impoverished Himalayan nation's peace deal with Maoist rebels, and will lead to the formation of a 601-seat assembly that will rewrite the constitution and is likely to abolish the unpopular monarchy.
"Results have already started trickling in. Districts have started giving the news update on the results," Election Commission spokesman Laxman Bhattarai told AFP.
He said if the count goes smoothly, the results for more than a third of the seats -- allocated via the constituency system -- were expected in just over a week.
"There are some areas where the ballot boxes are still coming and it may take some time due to remote geographical conditions. We hope to come out with all the results within 10 days or sooner," he said.
The rest of the seats, allocated by proportional representation, will take longer to decide as the count will be more complex. The complete, official results were not expected for several weeks.
Some 60 percent of Nepal's 17.6 million voters went to the polls Thursday, in what the United Nation peace mission here hailed as a show of "overwhelming enthusiasm" for a peace process that ended a decade of civil war.
In spite of clashes in the weeks leading up to the polls, the vote passed off largely smoothly, with repolling needed in just 33 of around 21,000 polling booths as a result of election day malpractice, the Election Commission said.
Security was tight across the country, but sporadic violence, including three deaths in the ethnically tense south, was reported. --AFP
| 
