e_Paper, Monday, May 15, 2017

News
Nepal votes in first local
election in 20 years
9
MONDAY, MAY 15, 2017
DT
Chinese President Xi Jinping, his wife Peng Liyuan and Russian President Vladimir Putin arrive for the
Belt and Road Forum at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on May 14, 2017
REUTERS
India skips China’s Silk
Road summit amid
Kashmir concerns
• Reuters, New Delhi
India has not sent an official delegation to
attend the “Belt and Road Forum” in Beijing
and instead criticised China’s global initiative,
warning of an “unsustainable debt burden”
for countries involved.
Chinese President Xi Jinping is hosting
dozens of world leaders and senior officials
on Sunday for the country’s biggest diplomatic
showcase of the year, touting his vision
of a new “Silk Road” that opens trade routes
across the globe.
Government officials from New Delhi did
not travel, Indian officials said, although
scholars from Indian think-tanks have flown
to Beijing to attend some of the meetings at
the forum.
Indian foreign ministry spokesman Gopal
Baglay, asked whether New Delhi was participating
in the summit, said India could not
accept a project that compromised its sovereignty.
India is incensed that one of the key Belt
and Road projects passes through Kashmir
and Pakistan. The nuclear-armed rivals have
fought two of their three wars over the disputed
region.
“No country can accept a project that ignores
its core concerns on sovereignty and
territorial integrity,” Baglay said.
He also warned of the danger of debt. One of
the criticisms of the Silk Road plan is that host
countries may struggle to pay back loans for
huge infrastructure projects being carried out
and funded by Chinese companies and banks.
“Connectivity initiatives must follow principles
of financial responsibility to avoid projects
that would create unsustainable debt
burden for communities,” Baglay said.
New Delhi’s criticism of the Belt and Road
initiative came as Xi pledged $124bn to the
plan, and called for the abandonment of old
models based on rivalry and diplomatic power
games.
Leaders from 29 countries and ministerial
delegates from many more are attending the
forum in Beijing, including India’s smaller
neighbours – not just Pakistan, but also Sri
Lanka and Nepal. •
Merkel’s party seeks key victory
in bellwether state vote
• AFP, Kathmandu
Nepal held local-level polls on Sunday, the
first since 1997 and a key step in its rocky road
to democracy more than a decade after a civil
war ended.
Around a third of registered voters across
three provinces were eligible to vote, with
the rest of the country due to do so in a
month’s time.
The Election Commission estimated turnout
of at least 71% as preliminary data trickled
in Sunday evening.
The vote has been split into two phases because
of unrest in the southern plains bordering
India, where the minority Madhesi ethnic
group is refusing to take part until an amendment
to the constitution is passed.
Local representatives were last elected in
1997 and their five-year terms expired at the
height of the brutal Maoist insurgency.
The 10-year war ended in 2006 and the country
began a fraught transition from a Hindu
monarchy to a secular federal republic, which
has seen it cycle through nine governments.
The long gap between polls has left an institutional
void at the local level and graft has
become a way of life in Nepal, hampering the
delivery of basic services as well as the recovery
from a devastating 2015 earthquake.
With nearly 70% of the population aged
under 35, many were voting for their local
A woman holds up her thumb after casting her
vote in Kathmandu on May 14, 2017
AFP
representatives for the first time.
Nearly 50,000 candidates were standing
for election across 283 local municipalities
in the first phase. Many registered as independents
or with a number of small reformist
parties hoping to grab some votes from the
traditional political heavyweights.
There were sporadic reports of violence on
Sunday, with one person killed when police
opened fire on a group attempting to raid a polling
station in Dolakha district, police said.
A bomb was also found early Sunday outside
the house of a mayoral candidate for the
main opposition CPN-UML party in Bhaktapur.
The remaining four provinces, considered
potential flashpoints for election-related
violence, will vote in the second phase
on June 14. •
• AFP, Dusseldorf
One in five German voters are heading to
the polls in a key state election Sunday, with
Chancellor Angela Merkel’s party hoping to
deal a crushing blow to her main rival four
months before national elections.
About 13.1 million eligible voters in North
Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) are casting ballots
to elect a new regional parliament for the
sprawling industrial region, which has a large
migrant population and has been a Social
Democratic Party (SPD) stronghold for decades.
But surveys ahead of the vote showed the
centre-left party running neck-and-neck with
Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union, with
some even placing the CDU ahead.
The opinion polls were the latest indication
that initial enthusiasm for the new SPD
leader, Martin Schulz, could be fizzling out.
The SPD had been ailing nationwide but
saw a surge in support in February when
Schulz took over. But that enthusiasm failed
to translate into votes in the last two state
elections, when the CDU won comfortably.
An election in Germany’s biggest state is
always significant, but this year’s NRW vote
carries higher stakes, being the last regional
vote before national polls and having a direct
impact on whether the SPD can close the gap
nationwide with the CDU.
After casting his vote in his hometown of
Wuerselen, Schulz acknowledged Sunday
that the race would be close, with 30% of voters
deciding their pick at the last minute.
“That makes it thrilling to the last second.
I hope of course that we will be ahead in the
evening,” he said.
Separately, the CDU’s candidate Armin
Laschet, who cast his vote in Aachen, said:
“There is a real chance that we can win. Now
it’s time for the voters to decide.”
Turnout appeared to be brisk at 33.6% as
of midday, compared to 29.5% at the same
time in 2012.
The SPD is banking its hopes on incumbent
state premier Hannelore Kraft, 55, who
secured 39.1% in a 2012 vote, while the CDU
clinched just over 26%. •