KATHMANDU (Reuters) - Nepalis began voting in the second round of local elections on Wednesday, a key step towards holding a general election later this year that would complete a near decade-long democratic transition after the abolition of its monarchy.

The latest round of voting covers parts of the restive southern plains that border India and there are concerns about possible violence after Rastriya Janata Party Nepal (RJPN), a group that dominates the area, said it would boycott the vote and called for a general strike.

In 2015 and 2016 scores of people were killed, mainly in clashes with police, in protests by the local ethnic Madhesi against a new constitution that they say leaves them marginalized and favors those living in the hills of the Himalayan nation.

The Madhesis are demanding a unified homeland, and greater participation in state organs including parliament, the judiciary, bureaucracy and the national army.

“Elections cannot be held before our demands are met,” said Hridayesh Tripathi, a RJPN leader.

The local elections - the first in Nepal since 1997 - mark an attempt by the government to restore democracy at the local level hit by a decade-long civil war that ended in 2006 and years of instability after the monarchy was abolished in 2008.

“This election will empower local bodies and open the floodgate of social and economic prosperity,” President Bidya Devi Bhandari said in a statement.

Television channels showed lines of voters carrying umbrellas bearing candidates’ pictorial symbols including a glass, torch light, house and rhinoceros, but no names.

The first phase of municipal polls was held on May 14 and a final round is set for September 18 after the end of the monsoon rains. Local polls serve as a barometer of public opinion ahead of parliamentary elections expected before the year end.

(This story was refiled to add missing words in 8th paragraph.) </s> KATHMANDU: Nepalis began voting in the second round of local elections on Wednesday, a key step towards holding a general election later this year that would complete a near decade-long democratic transition after the abolition of its monarchy. The latest round of voting covers parts of the restive southern plains that border India and there are concerns about possible violence after Rastriya Janata Party Nepal , a group that dominates the area, said it would boycott the vote and called for a general strike.

Start the conversation, or Read more at Channelnewsasia.com. </s> FREETOWN, Sierra Leone (AP) — Voting appeared to be peaceful on Saturday in Sierra Leone's runoff presidential election, which had been delayed by a few days after a court challenge of the first round.

Turnout in the West African nation was lower than in the first round on March 7. Security was tight and many streets were quiet for the holiday weekend.

The winner of the runoff will be tasked with helping Sierra Leone continue to rebuild after the devastating 2014-2016 Ebola epidemic as well as a deadly mudslide in August that claimed some 1,000 lives in the capital, Freetown.

The runoff vote had been set for Tuesday but was delayed after a ruling party member filed a court challenge alleging irregularities in the first round and a temporary injunction was issued, stalling preparations. The high court lifted the injunction early this week and the election commission asked for a few more days to prepare.

The opposition Sierra Leone Peoples Party, which took 43.3 percent to the ruling All Peoples Congress party's 42.7 in the first round, has not held the presidency since 2007.

The opposition called the court challenge a delaying tactic and its candidate Julius Maada Bio, a former military leader, accused President Ernest Bai Koroma and the ruling party of "pushing us to the point of chaos in the country."

Koroma has served two terms and is barred by the constitution from running again.

Bio, who is making his second bid for the presidency after losing in 2012, stands to pick up votes from the 14 candidates eliminated in the first round.

The election is the fourth since Sierra Leone's brutal civil war ended in 2002, and the previous vote in 2012 was largely peaceful.

"We do not need any violence or confusion," said one voter, Tenneh Kamara. "All we need is to improve things for our nation so that we will be proud as citizens of this, our country." </s> Polls opened Sunday for the first Thai election since a 2014 coup, with a high turnout expected among a public who received a cryptic last-minute warning from the Thai king to support "good" leaders to prevent "chaos."

All television stations repeated the rare statement by King Maha Vajiralongkorn moments before polls opened across the politically turbulent country.

Sunday's election pits a royalist junta and its allies against the election-winning machine of billionaire ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra and an unpredictable wave of millions of first-time voters.

The kingdom remains bitterly divided despite the ruling junta's pledge to rescue it from a decade-long treadmill of political instability, protests and coups.

Politicians across the spectrum fear a stalemate has been booked-in by new election rules, written by the junta, which limit the chances of any single party emerging with a comfortable parliamentary majority.

Voters determined to be the first to cast their ballots after years of democratic denial arrived at polling stations across the capital early Sunday.

"People want to vote," said businesswoman Apiyada Svarachorn at a Bangkok polling station, adding the public remains "split into two sides."

"We don't have the right to decide for ourselves for five years now," said Wasa Anupamnt a 28-year-old doctor.

"I'm very excited about this election."

An unscheduled palace statement -- which dropped late Saturday and was repeated minutes before the polls opened -- added further intrigue to an election that has repeatedly threatened to tip into chaos before a single vote was cast.

The statement reiterated comments by late king Bhumibol Adulyadej from 1969 calling for people to "support good people to govern the society and control the bad people" to prevent them from "creating chaos".

Vajiralongkorn, urged the public to "remember and be aware" of the remarks of his father, who died in 2016.

Thailand is a constitutional monarchy, but the palace holds unassailable powers and is shielded from criticism by a harsh royal defamation law.

The king's intervention before the election is his second in less than two months.

Another royal command torpedoed the candidacy of his elder sister Princess Ubolratana for prime minister of a party linked to Thaksin, a divisive ex-premier toppled by a 2006 coup.

The king called the move to bring his sister into politics "highly inappropriate", as the monarchy is ostensibly above the political fray.

The party was later dissolved by a court.

Thaksin has lived in self-exile since 2008, but he looms large over Sunday's election.

His affiliated parties have won every Thai election since 2001, drawing on huge loyalty from rural and urban poor.

On Friday Ubolratana was guest of honour at the glitzy Hong Kong wedding of Thaksin's daughter -- with photos of the tycoon and the princess hugging and smiling going viral.

The junta-party, which is proposing army chief turned premier Prayut Chan-O-Cha for civilian prime minister after the polls, is under intense pressure to avoid humiliation on Sunday in what is effectively a referendum on its popularity.

Prayut toppled the civilian government of Thaksin's younger sister Yingluck in 2014, the twelfth coup in under a century.

The army and its allies in the Bangkok elite loathe the Shinawatras, accusing the clan of toxifying Thai politics and society with money, nepotism and graft.

The Shinawatras say they have simply recognised the economic and democratic aspirations of the majority of Thais.

This time the ruling junta has written new election rules aimed at curbing the number of seats big parties -- specifically the Shinawatras' main election vehicle Pheu Thai -- can win.

Pheu Thai is expected to again sweep up the north and northeastern heartlands as it seeks to head an anti-junta coalition.

A 250-member junta-appointed senate and a new proportional system were meant to have manoeuvered Prayut and the junta party -- Phalang Pracharat -- into pole position.

With senate votes in hand, the party needs just 126 lower house seats to secure a parliamentary majority.

It can cross that line comfortably with alliances with smaller parties.

Pheu Thai, however, needs 376 lower house seats to command an overall majority -- near impossible without complex tie-ups across pro-democracy factions.

"A deadlock is very likely," political scientist Napisa Waitoolkiat of Naresuan University told AFP.

Seven million millennials are eligible to vote for the first time - many enamoured by telegenic billionaire Thanathorn Joonruangrit, a politial newcomer whose anti-junta position and strong social media messaging has won his Future Forward fans. </s> Lesotho will hold elections on 3 June, the landlocked kingdom's second snap poll in three years as political instability deepens. Photo: AFP / Gianluigi Guercia

MASERU - Citizens of Lesotho are voting for a new prime minister.

 

 It's the third general election since 2012, thanks to political turmoil.

The kingdom's Parliament was dissolved earlier this year, after Prime Minister Pakalitha Mosisili lost a vote of no confidence.

The break-up of his multi-party coalition played a major role in the no confidence vote.

Experts say another coalition is likely to be formed once the votes are in. </s> The final round of voting in a razor-thin presidential election in Sierra Leone — a race that has been marked by controversy — is underway.

The two leading candidates — Samura Kamara of the ruling All People's Congress (APC) and Julius Maada Bio of the Sierra Leone People's Party (SLPP) — are in a virtual dead heat, just as they were at the end of the first round of voting earlier this month, which Bio won by just 15,000 votes in a country with 3.1 million eligible voters.

"The race is too close to call," said Edmond Abu, director of the Native Consortium and Research Center.

Saturday's voting in the West African country was proceeding as planned, according to Momoh Sesay, an observer with the ruling APC party in the capital, Freetown.

More than 11,100 voting stations opened across the country at 0700 GMT but initially, at least, turnout appeared lower than the first round.

Polls are scheduled to close at 1700 GMT but results aren't expected until early next week

"It makes me proud to vote for the president I need to vote for," said Momoh Kamala, a 36-year-old cleaner in Freetown.

The diamond-rich Kono district in the east of the country is expected to be the key to victory for whoever wins, according to Abu, the political expert.

The APC filed a legal complaint alleging that some ballots had been tampered with, forcing a delay in the final round of voting, which was originally scheduled for last Tuesday.

The High Court resolved the issue Monday, but the National Election Commission asked the court for four more days to prepare the election.

Bio, 53, is a blunt-talking, retired brigadier general, who is trying to end the APC party's decade in power.

The former military man was part of a coup in 1992, and briefly led a junta in 1996 that eventually paved the way for democratic elections.

He also ran for president in 2012, losing to the APC incumbent President Ernest Bai Koroma. The president is leaving office after 10 years in power.

The run-up to the election has been characterized by terse verbal exchanges and occasional violence.

Bio has accused the APC of using police intimidation against his party and the electoral commission and of sponsoring the court case to cling to power.

Police have reported a series of attacks on candidates and supporters on both sides since the first round of voting, which saw Bio lead the field by a mere 15,000 votes with a turnout of 84 percent.

Bio has campaigned on a platform focusing on education, corruption and criticism of the government's warming relations with China. Kamara, on the other hand, is presenting himself as the candidate to maintain the status quo — continuing to develop President Koroma's programs on health care and road construction. </s> The Afghan government says it will hold presidential elections on April 20, 2019, for the fourth time since the Taliban were toppled from power in 2001, however, officials have warned much work needs to happen to meet that timeline.

During a televised news conference on Wednesday, election officials said the vote would take place six months after parliamentary and local elections scheduled for October 20, polls which have been marred by technical and organisational issues.

Afghanistan's Independent Election Commission (IEC) said security and funding, as well as the short timeframe between elections, would present the biggest challenges to the poll.

"Security is an issue that we hope will be solved by then," IEC spokesman Abdul Aziz Ibrahimi said.

Almost 14 percent, or 56 of more than 400 districts, are fully controlled by the Taliban while another 30 percent are contested, according to figures published by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR).

The IEC said it hoped as many as 15 million people will register for the polls, but the election commissioner admitted registration turnout so far had been low.

The last time Afghans went to the ballot box was in 2014, which produced no clear winner between the two main candidates, Ashraf Ghani and Abdullah Abdullah.

Both candidates accused each other of massive voter fraud, leading to months of arguments.

Eventually, the United States brokered a deal, crafting a government of national unity, with Ghani becoming president and Abdullah taking the position of the newly created position of chief executive.

Peace with the Taliban?

In recent months, incumbent President Ghani has attempted to start peace talks with the Taliban, proposing a ceasefire and prisoner release.

{articleGUID}

As part of the deal, Ghani has also suggested the Taliban take part in the official elections.

The Taliban, which has been fighting against the government since it was removed from power in 2001 by US-led forces, has demanded the withdrawal of foreign forces as a pre-condition for those peace talks.

The capital, which has been the site of relative calm, has seen an increase in bombings and other attacks since the Taliban announced the beginning of their spring offensive on April 25.

Fighting traditionally picks up in Afghanistan as warmer weather melts snow in mountain passes, allowing fighters to move around more easily.

Earlier this year both the Taliban and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) group killed dozens of people in an attempt to derail the elections.

Both groups have attacked several voter registration centres, including bombing and burning them.

According to the UN, a total of 1,692 people have been killed in the first half of 2018, with another 3,430 people wounded - the highest figure since it began keeping records in 2009. </s> Voters in the small southern African kingdom of Lesotho are heading to the polls to elect a new government in the third general election since 2012.

Saturday's poll is seen as a two-horse race between old rivals Prime Minister Pakalitha Mosisili and Thomas Thabane, who ruled from 2012 to 2015.

The winner is set to emerge from post-vote negotiations, yet analysts expect the election to lead to another fractious coalition government and the risk of instability in a country where years of political infighting have undermined attempts to tackle high poverty and unemployment rates.

Voting opened at 7am (05:00 GMT) and closes at 5pm (15:00 GMT), with counting expected to take several days. According to the electoral commission, 1.2 million people have registered to vote.

Long queues formed outside polling stations from early morning despite the winter chill.

Voting has begun in #Lesotho. A few dozen at the Abia voting station.Still early &cold.; 2015 voter turnout was about 47% #LesothoVotes2017 pic.twitter.com/6Nxve3XC4k — Fahmida Miller (@FahmidaMiller) June 3, 2017

Tired of frequent elections, voters are ultimately seeking stability, Al Jazeera's Fahmida Miller, reporting from the capital, Maseru, said.

"It is not a change in the leadership they are looking for necessarily. They want a stable and effective government," Miller said.

"What we have seen in the Lesotho politics in the last few years are constitutional difficulties and political in-fighting that have led to the same two leaders racing for power again."

READ MORE: Election looms as Lesotho PM loses confidence vote

The snap election was announced in March when Mosisili lost a no-confidence vote after his seven-party coalition government broke up less than two years after it was formed.

Mosisili, the 72-year-old leader of the Democratic Congress (DC) party, is running to serve as prime minister for the third time. He was first premier from 1998 to 2012 and returned to power in 2015 after a snap election.

Despite his long years in office, critics accuse him doing little to improve standards of living for the majority of people in the country who languish in poverty, and he is often seen as aloof.

Thabane, the leader of the All Basotho Convention (ABC), was unseated by a coup attempt in 2014, prompting him to flee to South Africa, where he lived in exile for two years. The 77-year-old returned in February, saying he still feared for his life.

He has drawn large crowds to his rallies and is seen as the narrow favourite.

In Maseru, the two leaders have competed for votes via giant billboards and posters.

"There is speculation that perhaps the army may connive with some politicians when the election outcome has been announced; that they should refuse the outcome of the election. That is not immediately foreseeable," political analyst Hoolo Nyane told Al Jazeera.

"What is foreseeable is that if another government, other than this one, manages to win power, it is not going to work smoothly in terms of management."

The mountainous landlocked country suffers high unemployment and a 22.7 percent HIV-AIDS infection rate in adults, with an economy dependent on South Africa, which surrounds it completely.

Constitutional monarchy

Lesotho is a constitutional monarchy ruled by King Letsie III, who has no formal power; it has a mixed parliamentary system.

80 members of parliament are voted in by constituents, while another 40 seats are distributed proportionally.

Mosisili's DC party is forecast to join forces with the Lesotho Congress of Democracy (LCD) and the Popular Front for Democracy (PFD).

Thabane's ABC party and the Alliance Democrats (AD) of Monyane Moleleki, a former police minister, are also in talks to form a possible coalition government.

Reflecting frustration at the country's politics, voter turnout declined sharply to just 46 percent in 2015 from 66 percent in 2002. </s> Voters in Thailand are heading to the polls in the country’s first election since the military ousted an elected government in a 2014 coup.

Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, the army chief who led the coup, is hoping to extend his hold on power after engineering a new political system that aims to stifle the influence of big political parties not aligned with the military.

About 51 million people are eligible to vote. Leaders of political parties opposed to military rule have urged a high turnout as the only way to derail Mr Prayuth’s plans.

The junta leader was among the first to vote in the Thai capital Bangkok, arriving in a Mercedes, after polling booths opened at 8am local time.

Speaking to reporters after casting his ballot, Mr Prayuth said, “I hope everyone helps each other by going to vote today as it’s everyone’s right.”

The election is the latest chapter in a nearly two-decade struggle between conservative forces including the military and the political machine of Thaksin Shinawatra, a tycoon who upended tradition-bound Thailand’s politics with a populist political revolution.

Mr Thaksin was ousted in a 2006 military coup and now lives in exile abroad to avoid a prison term, but parties allied with him have won every election since 2001.

His sister, Yingluck Shinawatra, who led the government that was ousted in 2014, also fled the country after what supporters said was a politically motivated corruption prosecution.

Thailand’s powerful King Maha Vajiralongkorn issued a statement on the eve of the election that said the role of leaders is to stop “bad people” from gaining power and causing chaos.

Invoking a speech by his father, the previous Thai king who died in 2016 after reigning for seven decades, King Vajiralongkorn said not all citizens can be transformed into good people so leaders must be given support in ruling to create a peaceful nation.

He urged government officials, soldiers and civil servants to look after national security.

It was the monarch’s second notable intervention in politics recently. Last month, he demanded his sister Princess Ubolratana Mahidol withdraw as a prime ministerial candidate for a small Thaksin-allied party within 24 hours of her announcement.

One of the first people to vote, 92-year-old Prabha Svarachorn, echoed the royal statement.

“I come to vote whenever there is an election,” she said. “I think it’s our duty to vote for good people. I would like people to come to vote.”

Political parties and their main leaders held their final major rallies on Friday evening in Bangkok.

Sudarat Keyuraphan, leader of the main pro-Thaksin party, Pheu Thai, said it would fight to overcome constitutional hurdles erected against it by Prayuth’s regime.

“In 2014, they took power with the barrel of a gun, by a coup,” she said. “In 2019, they are trying to take away the people’s power again through crooked regulations under the constitution.”

Concerns about a slowing economy under Mr Prayuth’s rule have been an issue in the campaign.

Mr Sudarat told the crowd, “Every time we come back, the economy improves, right?”

When it seized power in 2014, the military said it was to end political unrest that had periodically turned violent and disrupted daily life and the economy. The claim has been a major selling point for Mr Prayuth.
Nepalis vote in the second round of local elections, a major step in the near decade-long transition from monarchy to democratic government. The first round was held on May 14, and the final round is scheduled for September 18, after the monsoon season. Parliamentary elections are expected later this year.