DHAKA: Voting in Nepal`s Constituent Assembly election has been slightly disrupted, after a small roadside bomb exploded 50 metres away from a polling booth in Kathmandu.

The attack has stoked fears that some left-wing groups would not allow the vote to go forward.

Voting began on Tuesday morning, as citizens pick a special assembly which will draft a constitution aimed at ending years of political instability.

The incident, which comes after a series of similar attacks by anti-poll protestors in recent days, occurred when an eight-year-old boy picked up the bomb apparently thinking it was a toy, the AFP news agency quoted a police official as saying.

Al Jazeera`s Sohail Rahman, reporting from Nepal`s capital, said that one particular extremist political faction has threatened to create disruptions.

The group, a hardline faction of the Maoist party, "has held a few demonstrations on streets in recent days, with a couple of incendiary devices going off, trying to scare potential voters from going to election polls", he said.

The protestors say elections cannot be held under an interim administration set up after the collapse of Nepal`s first constituent assembly, and want polls to be postponed until a cross-party government is put in place.

Over 200,000 security personnel were deployed throughout Nepal to monitor polling booths.

Source: Al Jazeera.com
BDST: 1226 HRS, NOV 19, 2013
MR/RS/BSK