Nepal to vote in local polls for first time in 20 years

KATHMANDU: Nepal votes in local elections tomorrow for the first time in 20 years, a major step in the young republic’s difficult transition to democracy more than a decade after the end of its civil war.

The government hopes the elections, staggered over two phases, will lead to a general election later in the year.

A recent dispute between the poor Himalayan nation’s Maoistled government and the head of the supreme court had threatened to derail voting.

Nepal has suffered from years of political instability since emerging from a decade-long Maoist insurgency that ended in 2006 and the abolition of the monarchy two years later.

Its democratic journey took a