Starting early morning at 7 AM, the General Election of 2013 for the Constituent Assembly (CA) was observed with huge excitement and enthusiasm. Though the election can be rated fairly normal but with incidents and violent action happening all over, the General election for CA was a huge concern for all.
According to Election Commission of Nepal more than 70 percent of the country’s 12.6 million eligible voters had casted ballots. This year a huge number of candidates approximately 10,000 were filed under 122 political parties. Two types of votes were casted under direct candidacy of a political party and proportionate system.
With huge tension and protest going on led by the Baidhaya coalition over 0.2 million security personnel were deployed throughout Nepal.
The city was terrorized with an explosion early morning in Katmandu that injured three children. The bomb, planted near a polling station, exploded when a child played with it. The injured child, Samir Khadgi, 8 years old lost his hand and is in critical condition.
It was reported that Tuk Prasad Gautam, one of the Nepali Congress (NC)candidates of Kavre threw the ballot box in a polling booth in Araniko Higher Secondary School. Meanwhile, five NC cadres including local leader Kedar Gautam were injured in a clash between NC and UCPN-M at Jagriti Higher Secondary School in constituency no-1 of the district this afternoon.
UCPN-Maoist cadres captured polling booths of Gorkha constituency no. 1 Ghairung VDC-based Baskot and Ghayalchwok and they casted one-sided votes snatching away the voters’ ID cards forcefully.
In Chamundu village, about 400 kilometers (250 miles) west of Katmandu, opposition activists stormed into a polling station and ripped up ballots, said Homnath Thapaliya, the chief government administrator in the area.
Five Tarai Madhes Democratic Party (TMDP) cadres were injured when NC cadres reportedly opened fire at them in Dhankaul of Sarlahi Constituency-6.
The NC cadres are said to have opened 12 rounds of bullets where TMDP cadre Binda Ray was shot on his chest.
Similarly, it is estimated that the security forces defused 32 Improvised Explosive Devices(IED) across the country and 16 IEDs went off in different parts of the country.
The Nepal police arrested 37 individuals across the country during different anti-poll activities where 25 individuals were directly affected due to the various violent incidents. Apart from that the Nepal police arrested around 1000 people for using their public vehicle where a vehicle prohibition was enacted specially during the day from 5 AM to 12 PM the general election of CA. Special permits were issued by Election Commission for vehicle under operation.
Shanker Koirala, Spokesperson at Ministry of Home Affairs (MOHA) informed, “The government would bear all expenses of the injured ones, who have been undergoing treatment.”
The vote of Kathmandu district will be counted tomorrow (Wednesday) at International Convention Centre, New Baneshwor. Likewise, Administrative Staff College in Jawalakhel has been fixed for Lalitpur’s vote counting. Vote counting of Bhaktapur will be carried at the office of the Department of Education in Sanothimi.