Sunday, January 29, 2006; 3:30 PM

WASHINGTON DC, Jan. 29 � Hundreds of people filled the Lafayette Park this afternoon in front of The White House in o­ne of the larger show of anti-King Gyanendra sentiments in the nation's capital since his Feb 1, takeover of power in a small Himalayan kingdom of Nepal last year. The protest drew grandmothers, children, retired Royal Nepal Army and Nepali police officers, recent DV lottery winners, businessman, former politicians, representatives of Amnesty International-USA , o­ne politically active students fresh off from the stone throwing streets of Kathmandu and few others from out of state came to testify their growing impatience with the Royal regime's hollow promise of bringing peace and ending violence in Nepal. Even though President Bush seemed nowhere in sight to listen to the plight of the Nepalese gathered, the setting seemed to electrify the crowd that was gathered.

No recognised political figure has filed nominations so far for the upcoming municipal elections, as the deadline for registering names for the polls is coming to a close o­n Thursday. There is, however, possibility of a sudden increase in the turn out for the registration of names later in the day, before the deadline closes at 5 p.m. this afternoon, the EC officials said hopefully.

The Election Commission (EC) had fixed the deadline for today for the nomination of candidature for the municipal election slated for February 8.

"People who have filed their candidacy at the EC were not known political figures," said political activists gathered in front of the EC Office in Kathmandu. They claimed that those who filed their nominations were people inclined to the palace.

Our district correspondents have reported similar conditions in the respective districts, saying the EC offices remained vacant and no o­ne showed up to file nominations till this afternoon.