Amid cries of foul play, Nepal's National Election Commission said yesterday that the counting of votes had ended in all but one municipality and the pro-king party had won most of the mayoral posts.
Vote counting ended yesterday for the prestigious post of Kathmandu mayor, where the candidate belonging to the pro-monarch faction of the National Democratic Party was declared elected.
The counting of the votes that began late Wednesday night across Nepal was marred by protests by participating parties and independent candidates.
PHOTO: AP
Even though just about 20 percent of the over 390,000 voters cast their ballots in Kathmandu, the counting was delayed because of allegations of fraud during the vote count.
In the Nepalese capital, Raja Ram Shrestha emerged as the winner. He belongs to the Thapa faction of the National Democratic Party.
The pro-monarchy National Democratic Party split ahead of the municipal polls with the faction led by Home Minister Kamal Thapa opting to take part in the elections.
The other faction led by party president Pashupati Shumshere Rana stayed away from the polls and threw its lot with the seven parties agitating against King Gyanendra's direct rule.
According to the National Election Commission, the Thapa faction of the National Democratic Party won 14 out of the 34 mayoral contests, followed by Nepal Sadbhabana Party which won two mayoral seats.
The remaining mayoral posts in different municipalities went to independent candidates.
The vote counting in Birgunj, a town near the Nepal-India border, was still going on, the National Election Commission said.
The civic polls were held on Wednesday and despite appeals by government ministers, the voter turn out was extremely low, averaging just about 22 percent of about 1.4 million eligible voters in 36 municipalities across Nepal.
Nepal's political parties, mainly the centralist Nepali Congress and its breakaway faction the Nepali Congress Democratic and the communist United Marxist-Leninists, boycotted the polls saying that they were being held to "legitimize" King Gyanendra's seizure of power in February last year.
The Maoists also rejected the election and imposed a week-long nationwide shutdown from Sunday to obstruct the polls.
Though the Maoists said their shutdown would last for a week, they withdrew the general strike on Wednesday.
Auschwitz survivor Eva Schloss, the stepsister of teenage diarist Anne Frank and a tireless educator about the horrors of the Holocaust, has died. She was 96. The Anne Frank Trust UK, of which Schloss was honorary president, said she died on Saturday in London, where she lived. Britain’s King Charles III said he was “privileged and proud” to have known Schloss, who cofounded the charitable trust to help young people challenge prejudice. “The horrors that she endured as a young woman are impossible to comprehend and yet she devoted the rest of her life to overcoming hatred and prejudice, promoting kindness, courage, understanding
US President Donald Trump on Friday said Washington was “locked and loaded” to respond if Iran killed protesters, prompting Tehran to warn that intervention would destabilize the region. Protesters and security forces on Thursday clashed in several Iranian cities, with six people reported killed, the first deaths since the unrest escalated. Shopkeepers in Tehran on Sunday last week went on strike over high prices and economic stagnation, actions that have since spread into a protest movement that has swept into other parts of the country. If Iran “violently kills peaceful protesters, which is their custom, the United States of America will come to
‘DISRESPECTFUL’: Katie Miller, the wife of Trump’s most influential adviser, drew ire by posting an image of Greenland in the colors of the US flag, captioning it ‘SOON’ US President Donald Trump on Sunday doubled down on his claim that Greenland should become part of the US, despite calls by the Danish prime minister to stop “threatening” the territory. Washington’s military intervention in Venezuela has reignited fears for Greenland, which Trump has repeatedly said he wants to annex, given its strategic location in the arctic. While aboard Air Force One en route to Washington, Trump reiterated the goal. “We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security, and Denmark is not going to be able to do it,” he said in response to a reporter’s question. “We’ll worry about Greenland in
PERILOUS JOURNEY: Over just a matter of days last month, about 1,600 Afghans who were at risk of perishing due to the cold weather were rescued in the mountains Habibullah set off from his home in western Afghanistan determined to find work in Iran, only for the 15-year-old to freeze to death while walking across the mountainous frontier. “He was forced to go, to bring food for the family,” his mother, Mah Jan, said at her mud home in Ghunjan village. “We have no food to eat, we have no clothes to wear. The house in which I live has no electricity, no water. I have no proper window, nothing to burn for heating,” she added, clutching a photograph of her son. Habibullah was one of at least 18 migrants who died
RSS