Nepal's general election is now happening.
Voting officially began in Nepal at 7:00 am (01:15 GMT) and will continue until 5:00 pm local time.
About 19 million voters are registered to participate in the election in the House of Representatives, the lower house of Nepal's parliament. About 800,000 of them are first-time voters.
Nepal is holding its first general election on Thursday since the government was toppled by youth protests in September demanding freedom from corruption, jobs and clean politics. Nepal has been going through decades of political turmoil. The country has changed governments 32 times since 1990.
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About 19 million of Nepal's 30 million people are eligible to vote in the election. 165 of the 275-member legislature will be elected directly and 110 through proportional representation.
About 1 million new voters, most of them young, have joined the electoral rolls since last year's protests. These new voters have reinforced demands for radical changes to Nepal's political system and job creation, including better wages.
Old vs. New Faces
The election battle pits the old parties, the Nepali Congress (NC) and the Communist Party of Nepal (UML), which have dominated politics for decades. On the other hand, analysts say the three-year-old Rashtriya Swayamsevak Party (RSP) is ahead. Popular rapper Balendra Shah, 35, joined the party in January and is its prime ministerial candidate.
The former mayor of Kathmandu emerged as a key figure in the protests in September. Shah's main challenger is 74-year-old KP Sharma Oli of the UML, who was forced to resign after the shooting of protesters.
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