NEPALGUNJ: Nepal’s troubled south began voting Wednesday in the first local elections for two decades, a key stage in the country’s post-war transformation from feudal monarchy to federal democracy. The elections began last month in other parts of the nation but were repeatedly delayed in the southern plains, which were hit by deadly protests two years ago. The Madhesi ethnic minority say federal boundaries set by a new national constitution will leave them under-represented in parliament. More than 60,000 candidates are competing in Wednesday’s polls, which cover around half the country and are intended to fill an institutional vacuum that has seen corruption flourish. The last local representatives were elected in 1997 and their mandates lapsed when their five-year terms expired at the height of the brutal 1996-2006 Maoist insurgency. Published in Daily Times, June 29th, 2017.