Nepal set to vote on Nov 19 amid violence

But the blockade - set to last until election day - hasn't gone quite as planned. After thousands of drivers across the country defied the strike, opposition activists resorted to violence, torching cars, forcing businesses to close and bringing much of the South Asian nation to a standstill.

The incident is just the latest in a string of political upheavals, exposing the increased level of polarization in one of the world's youngest democracies.

The current power struggle in the impoverished Asian nation with a population of around 30 million goes back some 20 years. The Himalayan nation of Nepal was a kingdom for more than two centuries, ruled by absolute monarchs. But things started to change in 1990 when then King Birendra, under pressure from pro-democracy groups, agreed to become a constitutional monarch. A few years later, social unrest coupled with quarrels among political parties descended into a decade-long civil war in which an estimated 16,000 people died. The conflict only came to an end in 2006 when the government reached an agreement with Maoist insurgents, which effectively abolished the monarchy and turned the country into a republic two years later.

The 2006 peace deal was supposed to usher in a new era of democracy, as it not only included the former rebels into the mainstream political system but also paved the way for elections to a legislature that would be in charge of drafting the new constitution.