Kapilvastu, Feb. 27 -- Mahadev Tharu, 86, has voted in every national election since the 1986 Rastriya Panchayat (national parliament) elections. As the country prepares to vote in the House of Representatives polls next week, Tharu is set to cast his vote for the ninth time. Yet the excitement that once accompanied election day has long faded.

"Back then, we believed change would come," said the octogenarian, sitting outside his mud-walled home in Juwabairath, ward 1 of Bijayanagar Rural Municipality in Kapilvastu district. "The political system changed. Governments changed. But our village is still struggling even for basic needs," he lamented.

Juwabairath lies in the far north-western edge of Kapilvastu, near the border with India. T...