Kathmandu [Nepal], May 14: Local elections were held on Friday in Nepal largely peacefully, despite clashes and tension at some polling stations.
More than 17 million voters were eligible to cast their votes in the polls held to elect 35,221 representatives to 753 local units from some 145,000 candidates.
The voting was completed for 752 local units on the day, as the death of a deputy mayoral candidate forced the polls in one municipality to be deferred till Tuesday, the Election Commission said in a statement.
"The voting was largely peaceful though there were incidents of clashes among party cadres in some polling centers," Tulasi Bahadur Shrestha, a joint secretary at the Election Commission, told Xinhua.
"The voting was cancelled in some of the polling centers," he added.
The commission set up 10,756 polling stations and 21,955 voting booths across the South Asian country for the polls, the second of its kind after Nepal adopted a federal republic system following promulgation of a new constitution in 2015. The last local elections were held in three phases in 2017.
The elections pitted the five ruling parties, which had formed an electoral alliance, against the main opposition the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist Leninist), which also joined hands with some fringe parties in some polls.
"The vote count will begin in most places from Friday night," Shaligram Sharma Poudel, the Election Commission spokesperson, told Xinhua. "We're planning to announce the final results for all the local units in a week."
The results of the local elections shall affect the upcoming polls for new provincial and federal parliaments.
Source: Xinhua
