All the king’s men dominate Nepal elections

ROYALIST candidates who dominated local elections called by Nepal’s king duly cleaned up in the violence-plagued poll, according to official partial results.

Results were announced by the Election Commission in nearly half the 36 municipalities where polls were held on Wednesday, with candidates mainly from newly-formed pro-royal political parties winning the day. The elections were boycotted by mainstream opposition parties and disrupted by Maoist rebels, leading to a voter turnout of just over 21% in the troubled Himalayan country, the commission said.

The Rastriya Prajatantra Party led by Home Minister Kamal Thapa won mayors’ seats in eight municipalities, and independent candidates - many of whom are believed to back King Gyanendra - won seven, the commission said. Violence marred the elections, called by the king as part of his “roadmap” back to democracy after he seized power a year ago.

“The average turnout was just over 21%,” commission spokesman Tejmuni Bajracharya told AFP.

“This is the lowest turnout in the history of elections conducted in Nepal.”

He attributed the large-scale stay-away to “the unfavourable conditions” in the country. Newspapers had differing assessments of the vote. The state-run Rising Nepal lauded its “peaceful conclusion” while the Kathmandu Post and Himalayan Times featured front-page stories about the low turnout and poll protests.

The United States said the elections were a “hollow attempt to legitimise power” by Gyanendra and urged the king to restore democracy.

“The only effective way to deal with the threat posed by Maoists is to restore democracy in Nepal,” State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said in Washington late Wednesday.

More than half the seats in the local polls remained empty because of a dearth of candidates, while in 22 municipalities mayoral candidates were appointed after standing unopposed.

The low turnout is a reflection of people’s distrust of the king, said political analyst and president of the Nepal Press Institute Dhruba Adhikary.