Nepal has voted today 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’.
The vote was calmer than expected. 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.
The ex-rebel leader spent a decade fighting the national army in an attempt to topple the monarchy. Though it participated in the vote, his party has warned it could fight again if it feels cheated by the results.
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.
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, 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.
