(AFP) – Apr 10, 2008

KATHMANDU (AFP) — The troubled Himalayan kingdom of Nepal on Thursday gave a historic vote of support for a peace process that is set to abolish an unpopular monarchy and reshape the impoverished country.

The UN peace mission said the elections for a 601-seat assembly, the climax of a peace process involving mainstream parties and Maoist rebels, had been met with a show of "overwhelming enthusiasm" across the roof the world.

"Clearly there has been overwhelming enthusiasm on part of the people to come out and cast their vote," UN spokesman Kieran Dwyer told AFP as polling stations closed.

"There have been reports of incidents in some constituencies across the country, but so far in a relatively small number of areas," he said of the calmer-than-expected election day. Final results are not due for several weeks.

Nepal's main parties, the centrist Nepali Congress and the centre-left Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist), were expected to grab most of the seats.

But Maoist leader Prachanda, who was greeted with flowers and cheering crowds when he voted, said the democratic experience was being embraced by his rebel force -- whose 20,000 fighters have been confined to UN-monitored camps.

"We are making new history for Nepal and it is fantastic," the ex-rebel leader, who spent a decade fighting the national army in a deadly insurgency to topple the monarchy, told AFP after casting his vote.

Still, his party has warned it could fight again if it feels cheated by the results.

Nepal's election commissioner said the vote was largely peaceful, with the exception of a few "minor" incidents.

"According to our preliminary estimate there has been a total turnout of around 60 per cent of voters," Election Commissioner Bhojraj Pokhrel told reporters.

Repolling was needed in just 33 of around 21,000 polling booths as a result of election day malpractice, he said.

Security was tight across the country, but sporadic violence, including three deaths in the ethnically tense south, were reported.

One activist was killed in the southern district of Sunsari after clashes between activists from the Nepali Congress and supporters of a political party representing southern residents known as Mahadhesis.

The second death was an independent candidate who was shot dead by unknown assailants in Sarlahi district, officials said.

After polling finished, a third unidentified person was killed in a fight between opposing political supporters in Mahottari district, the home ministry said.

But the incidents reported so far were far less dramatic than the violent mayhem many had feared.

The elections are central to the 2006 peace deal that ended the Maoist insurgency -- a brutal war that led to at least 13,000 deaths -- and attempts by the country's unpopular King Gyanendra to assume absolute power.

The king, who came to power in 2001 after much-loved former King Birendra and most of the rest of the family were massacred by a drunk-and-drugged crown prince, is expected to lose his throne when the new assembly is formed.

But he can still count on support from sections of the army and Hindu fundamentalists who see him as an incarnation of a Hindu god, and analysts say the post-vote period will be another big test for the resilience of the peace process.

Gyanendra and his controversial son and heir Paras, whose reported hard-living and playboy lifestyle had alienated the public, were nowhere to be seen on polling day.

The big question, say analysts, is whether the election outcome gives the Maoists -- still classed by Washington as a "terrorist" organisation -- enough political clout to motivate them to stay within the democratic system.

Youth activist Rajendra Mulmi said the country was simply hoping for better days ahead after the war crippled Nepal's economy.

The economy "should be the biggest agenda over the next 10 years and it cannot happen without peace," said Mulmi, head of an umbrella group for youth organisations.

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