Crude Bomb Mars Nepal Election as Maoist Hardliners Protest

A crude bomb exploded early on election day in Nepal on Tuesday, injuring three children as voters turned out for a poll seen as crucial in stabilizing the Himalayan country after a civil war.

The explosive planted in a middle-class residential neighborhood in the capital Kathmandu went off three hours after polling stations opened, with another five hoax bombs recovered by police on Monday.

"I was passing by when I saw three children lying on the ground, crying for help," 28-year-old eyewitness Saroj Maharjan told Agence France Presse at the scene, where voters said they were now terrified.

"One of the children, whose face was covered in blood, fainted in my arms as I carried him to a nearby hospital," he added.

Police said an eight-year-old had picked up the bomb shortly before it detonated, assuming it to be a toy.

A splinter faction of the Maoist party has vowed to disrupt the poll, undermining the objective of producing a constituent assembly of national unity which must write a new constitution.

A first assembly elected in 2008, two years after the end of fighting by Maoists, was dominated by the former rebels but was riven with divisions and highly unstable.

Five prime ministers served brief terms, for long periods the country had no leader, and the 601-member body collapsed in 2012 after failing to agree on a new constitution.

Organizing the election has been a logistical headache in a country home to eight of the world's 14 highest mountains, requiring the use of helicopters, horses and porters to deliver ballot boxes to remote areas.

"Some of the voters have trekked for five hours to reach here. They include elderly as well as young first-time voters," Gitachari Acharya, an official at the nearest polling station to Mount Everest, told AFP.

Hopes of reconciliation between the country's politicians were dashed by the decision of a 33-party alliance, led by the Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist (CPN-M), to disrupt the polls and intimidate voters.

In recent days, they have torched vehicles and hurled explosives at traffic to protest that the vote is being held under an interim administration headed by the chief justice of the Supreme Court.

They wanted a cross-party government in place which would include them.

One person has been killed and more than 360 arrested during the protests, police say.

Security had been tightened across the country as a result, with the government deploying 50,000 soldiers and 140,000 police personnel to guard polling stations.

Measures include a ban on all public and most private transportation, meaning that nearly all voters had to walk to polling stations to cast their ballot.

Only ambulances and vehicles belonging to the media, diplomatic organizations, non-profits, polling officials and election observers are allowed on the streets.

A police spokesman told AFP two protestors were injured on the eve of the polls while trying to set off explosives in Kathmandu.

"We also recovered five hoax bombs in Kathmandu last night," police spokesman Ganesh K.C. said.

Tirtha Narayan Manandhar, an 85-year-old retired businessman was among the first to cast his ballot at a polling station in central Kathmandu.

Manandhar, bundled up in two sweaters to guard against the cold, said he was "happy to have participated in the democratic process in my old age.”

But, he added, "although I exercised my rights and cast my votes, I am not sure our belligerent leaders will deliver the constitution.”

The political deadlock has had bitter implications for Nepal's economy, with annual GDP growth tumbling from 6.1 percent in 2008 to 4.6 percent last year, World Bank figures show.

With 39 percent of the country aged between 16 and 40 years old, according to government data, jobs are a major issue for young, first-time voters.