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Voting Ends as Nepalis Choose Constituent Assembly


Voting has ended in Nepal, which is electing a new 601-member constituent assembly tasked with drawing up a constitution that will end years of political uncertainty.

Officials said turnout was about 70 percent and was largely peaceful.

Results are expected next week after vote counts start arriving from Nepal's remote mountain villages. Full results are not expected for several weeks.

The vote is only the second since the conclusion of Nepal's civil war in 2006. The 2008 election effort resulted in a series of short-lived governments that failed to establish stability in the ethnically diverse nation.



Tuesday's voting was marred by at least one violent incident: an explosion in the capital, Katmandu, wounded three people including a child. Police said the blast was caused by a bomb at a polling station.

Police had banned most vehicles from the roads, leaving people to walk to their polling stations to choose among candidates from more than 100 political parties. The government called a four-day holiday to allow people time to travel back and forth.
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