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60 p.c. polling in Nepal: panel

— Photo: AFP

Keen eye: The former U.S. President, Jimmy Carter, arriving at an election booth in Kathmandu on Thursday.

KATHMANDU: At a press conference here on Thursday, Nepal’s Chief Election Commissioner Bhoj Raj Pokhrel said over 60 per cent voters had exercised their franchise in the Constituent Assembly elections. He said the Commission had cancelled voting in 33 polling stations out of 20,889 stations across the country. The cancellations are lower compared to the 1999 parliamentary election when voting was cancelled in 85 polling stations.

Three persons died — one of them an independent candidate — in poll related violence on Thursday. Independent candidate of Sarlahi-6, Shambhu Prasad Singh, and an NC activist in Sunsari-5 were shot dead in the afternoon. A voter died in a stampede at Mahottari. Six persons died during the last general election.

In the Kathmandu constituency one, where electronic voting machines donated by India were used, the result is expected by midnight Thursday. Re-polling will take place in the cancelled polling centres within a week. The first-past-the-post system will elect 240 members to the Constituent Assembly and 335 members will be elected under the proportional representation system. The Cabinet will nominate 26 members in the 601-member Assembly. The first meeting of the Assembly, which will have to be convened within 21 days after the election results are out, will formally abolish the 240-year monarchy.

The government had mobilised over 1,00,000 security personnel for the election. About 1,00,000 national observers and about 800 international observers examined the conduct of the polls.

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