Word: nepal
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Many foreign observers feared these elections-postponed twice already-would fail. Nepal is a country still in the shadow of a bloody decade-long civil war fought between Maoist rebels and the monarchy's security forces, interrupted, albeit briefly, by the 2001 massacre of eleven members of the royal family allegedly at the hands of the king's own son. A peace deal brokered two years ago brought the remnants of the monarchy to its knees and the Maoists into the political mainstream, but efforts to further the process along have been marred throughout by political squabbling and vigilante violence...
...sense of dread that haunted Nepal's trek to the polls is fading fast. "The mood is almost euphoric," says Kunda Dixit, editor of the English-language Nepali Times and a prominent democracy advocate. More than half of the registered electorate in Kathmandu voted in just the first few hours of polling. Despite a scattering of incidents-one candidate was gunned down, an eight others were killed in factional fighting-only 33 of 20,882 voting stations nationwide reported that polling was disrupted...
...lawlessness that has plagued parts of the country. The Maoist leader, still known by his nom de guerre Prachanda, insists they are committed to multi-party democracy, but some Kathmandu insiders believe the former rebels will balk at an election defeat. The Maoists consider themselves the chief catalysts of Nepal's transformation; recently, Prachanda declared to reporters that the path to a republic was "our agenda alone...
...Whoever the political victors are, all of Nepal's parties face far greater challenges than consolidating power. The restive lowland plains that border India still smolder with ethnic unrest. Nepal's economy is a shambles: fuel shortages routinely paralyze the country, while more than a third of the population lives below the poverty line. The country's pitiful growth rate hovers barely over 2 percent as unprecedented numbers of Nepalese are quitting the country for jobs in the Gulf, India and Southeast Asia. An estimated 10,000 women who leave each year end up as sex workers in Indian brothels...
...people of Nepal don't really care about a republic or a monarchy," says Dixit, the Nepali Times editor. Instead, they want an end to rancorous politicking. They want a concerted program for development and the creation of new jobs within the country. A new Nepalese government also must attend to the hard, yet inescapable reality of the trauma left behind by years of civil war. Reconciliation and reconstruction is the sole agenda that the voting public cares about. It'll be up to the country's garlanded leaders to deliver...