Nepalese get to vote after 20 years

New era: Voters queuing up to cast their ballots at a polling station in Thimi on the outskirts of Kathmandu. — AFP

Kathmandu: Voting started in Nepal yesterday in its first local elections in two decades, a landmark moment in the country’s fraught transition to democracy.

Polls opened in three provinces at 7am (local time) with nearly 50,000 candidates vying for the position of mayor, deputy mayor, ward chairman and ward member in 283 local municipalities.