Nepal's elections

Nepal's municipal elections went forward on Wednesday despite a lack of candidates for many offices. Violence and intimidation kept many candidates from running.

In addition, the government cracked down on the opposition.

The leading Opposition parties plan to peacefully disrupt the vote, the first since 1999.

"We have instructed all our supporters and cadres to go the polling stations in their areas and do whatever they can to stop voting," Krishna Sitaula of the Nepali Congress said on Tuesday.

Gyanendra's Government has responded by rounding up hundreds of politicians, activists and journalists.

Turnout was low on Wednesday, due in part to the low number of candidates and also because Maoist threats and a Maoist call to boycott the elections.

The royal government's move to hold Nepal's first elections in seven years was marred Wednesday by rebels who killed two people and took 10 hostage in an eastern town and a boycott of the local polling by most political parties.

Relatively few voters turned up at the polls for the municipal elections following vows by both the country's Maoist rebels and political dissidents to disrupt polling and threats by the government to shoot anyone caught doing so.

The government of King Gyanendra billed the local elections as a step back toward democracy, hoping to ease a power struggle among the monarchy, rebels and the country's main political parties. Instead, they prompted near-daily attacks from rebels and a boycott by most politicians who called the polls a ploy to legitimize Gyanendra's seizure of absolute power just over a year ago.

Hours before the polls opened, rebels launched a major assault on the eastern town of Dhankuta, where the guerrillas bombed at least 12 government buildings and destroyed the local bank, police officials said.

They killed one policeman and one civilian, and took seven government officials and three policemen hostage during the assault, a police official said on condition of anonymity.

AP Correspondent Matthew Rosenberg has been in Nepal to cover the elections, and has been keeping a blog.

The election is over in Nepal. It wasn't nearly as bad as everyone had braced for, although the rebels did make good on their threats to launch attacks, killing a police officer and a civilian. The government also made good on its threats to shoot anyone caught trying to disrupt the vote, killing a protester in the heartland of the Maoist insurgents in western Nepal.

There was no widespread violence, and while most of Katmandu is shut, a few places are open, the casinos, for example.

In America and Europe, people dream of coming to Katmandu to get taste of its Eastern spirituality and see the Himalayas, maybe even climb a peak.

But in New Delhi, where I'm based, Indians dream of coming to Katmandu to do what they can't at home, take a spin on the roulette wheel and maybe even play blackjack.

These elections will solve little. A government unwilling to truly let go of power, combined with a violent murderous insurgency is a bad combination. The violence will continue, as it did today.

At least two Royal Nepalese Army (RNA) soldiers and a woman were killed and 12 persons sustained injuries in a clash between the RNA and Maoists in Nawalparasi district on February 9. The clash occurred when the Maoists opened fire at a group of RNA personnel who were clearing obstructions placed by the former along the Mahendra Highway in the Rambhapur and Ghodaha areas. In another incident, a woman traveling on a bicycle at Itabhatti on the Butawal-Parasi section of the highway was killed as she ran over a landmine planted by the Maoists. Three other women were injured in the explosion.

Meanwhile, at least two Maoists were killed in an encounter with the security forces (SFs) at Satdobato in the western district of Gorkha on February 9. A child and five women were injured in an explosion triggered by the Maoists in an area between the Pindeshwor Temple and Dantakali Primary School in Sunsari district on February 8.

Further, security forces on February 8 killed Hurilal Rana, an activist of the Nepali Congress (Democratic), on charges of disrupting the municipal polls in Dhangadi.