Voting begins in Nepal amid looming economic

Nepali women clad in saris and men in jeans and baseball caps were standing in long queues on Sunday as voting started in a general election that few expect to bring drastic change - or a government able to quickly revive the economy.

"I voted for economic development, ensuring jobs, food, clothes, education and health services," Rajesh Kumar Subedi, a 52-year-old employee who was the first to vote at Phaimlamchuli voting centre, a Kathmandu suburb, Qazet.az reports according to Reuters.

The election pits the ruling alliance of the Nepali Congress party, led by Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba and some former Maoist rebels, against the Nepal Communist Unified Marxist Leninist (UML) party.