The world's last remaining Hindu royal dynasty is facing abolition.

Last Thursday, voters went to the polls in the Himalayan kingdom of Nepal, but the result may not be known for weeks. It's the first nationwide ballot in nine years and voters are being given the chance to select a new body to rewrite the constitution, transforming the country from a monarchy to a republic.

South Asia correspondent Peter Lloyd was in Kathmandu in the lead-up to the ballot.

Kunda Dixit, Editor Nepali Times: He wanted absolute power and he wanted … his hatred for the political process and democracy was so deep, that he wanted it all for himself.

Peter Lloyd, Reporter: Do you think that the Monarchy will survive this year?

Kamal Thapa, Royal Party: The monarchy will survive.

Peter Lloyd: Gyanendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev is one of a kind, the world's only Hindu King. But the days of pomp and ceremony for this monarch are numbered.

This is the King's arch nemesis, Maoist leader Prachanda, the name means 'fierce one'.

"The army and the police created an impression of me as if I had two horns, big teeth, lots of arms like a demon." Prachanda

Prachanda, Maoist leader (translation): The army and the police created an impression of me as if I had two horns, big teeth, lots of arms like a demon. But you see me in front of you.

Peter Lloyd: For ten years, he led a so called people's war against the feudal monarchy but Prachanda couldn't win on the battlefield, so now he's using the ballot box.

Prachanda (translation): After seven years, the Nepali people are now winning and until the people are victorious, we can not sit down.

Peter Lloyd: King Gyanendra came to the throne seven years ago after the massacre of his popular brother and most of the royal family. The gunman, a drunk and drug fuelled Crown Prince, later killed himself.

In 2005, the King sacked the Government and seized absolute power. He claimed political parties had failed to end the war with the Maoists. But direct royal rule was unpopular - there were violent protests.

After 14 months, King Gyanendra was forced to back down and reinstate parliament. Politicians exacted revenge by stripping the King of power.

"…modern monarchs should be in the background and steering things." Kunda Dixit

Kunda Dixit: He's done this to himself. He has not just to himself but to the institution of monarchy, by first of all trying to be an autocratic King at a time when modern monarchs should be in the background and steering things, if at all, having a hand in politics.

Peter Lloyd: These days the King is rarely seen in public. There are lurid accounts of him sheltering behind palace walls surrounded by astrologers, counting his money and planning an escape.

The fate of his reign and the 238-year-old Shah Dynasty hangs in the balance.

Kunda Dixit: I think a lot of people, as elections come around, are now seeing the monarchy more as, not a symbol of unity, but as a symbol of division in this country, and that as long as there is this very ambitious King around, then we'll never really have peace.

Peter Lloyd: Staunch royalists haven't given up hope of saving the monarchy from oblivion. They have a party running in the election, its leader is a friend and loyal subject of the King.

Peter Lloyd: What is your message to the people?

"We need some form of monarchy." Kamal Thapa

Kamal Thapa, Royal Party: Basically we are for constitutional monarchy. As you are aware that at the present moment in the constituent assembly election, the country is polarised between republic voters, monarchy. But we think that for the independent existence of Nepal and for the sovereignty of Nepal, as to protect democracy, we need some form of monarchy. That is what we are trying to tell people.

Peter Lloyd: Do you think people are listening to that message?

Kamal Thapa: As a matter of fact, a majority of the Nepalese population, an overwhelming majority of the Nepalese population is still want to retain some form of monarchy. When we're talking about monarchy, we are not saying for absolute monarchy or active monarchy, some form of monarchy as in a plain language, we are supporting a monarchy like in Britain, Japan, Thailand.

And so far we know that still the overwhelming majority of the Nepalese population are in favour of retaining monarchy.

Pratima Pandey, Nepalese voter: Personally, I believe we need monarchy here.

Peter Lloyd: In Nepal there does seem to be a mood to forgive and forget. Many may loathe the current King, but like Pratima and Minal, they are reluctant to kill off the monarchy forever.

Minal Pandey, Nepalese voter: We look upon him as our parents - so we want monarchy.

Peter Lloyd: Even though he is regarded by many people as having made some terrible mistakes?

"Even though he had make mistakes I want him to be in our country." Minal Pandey

Minal Pandey: Mistakes happen. Even we do make mistakes. It doesn't mean that he made a mistake so he has to be turned out from the country. That's not the right thing to do, people make mistakes. So even though he had make mistakes I want him to be in our country.

Peter Lloyd: Amongst the urban middle class there is suspicion of Maoist leader Prachanda.

Pratima Pandey: They're acting like a party... before they were terrorist. They kill so many innocent people, you know.

Peter Lloyd: Do you trust them?

Pratima Pandey: I don't trust them.

Peter Lloyd: What's your message to the outside world? Many people fear the Maoists are like Khmer Rouge in Cambodia?

Prachanda: No, we are completely new kinds of party, you know. We are dynamic, we have already committed for multi-party competition. We are in the peace process, we are in the election.... The whole community should not suspect us in such a way that we are committed to something like that.

Peter Lloyd: At the launch of a Maoist run radio station, we asked him: If the result means people favour a constitutional monarchy, will you accept that?

Prachanda: This is completely hypothetical question.

Peter Lloyd: It's a possibility.

"We shall have to respect the verdict of the masses." Prachanda

Prachanda: But if there will be a free and fair election and the people give that kind of verdict, we shall have to respect the verdict of the masses. This is my point, you know. But it is not going to happen, you know. This is totally hypothetical question.

Kunda Dixit: Anyone who tells you or predicts with certainty what's going to happen in this election doesn't know what he's talking about. It's a huge uncertainty. Maoists could do very well or they could flop totally. We don't know.

Peter Lloyd: Flopping would make Maoists powerful losers. They still have a standing army of around 18,000 soldiers, for now, confined to camps, their weapons under United Nations supervision.

But the revolutionary army hasn't been idle. They've been busy recruiting and preparing for a return to conflict if it comes to that.

Whoever wins the election will face a mammoth task in turning around a nation in a ruinous mess, the economy has stalled, there are fuel and food shortages, electricity is off as much as it's on. For ordinary people like Pratima and Minal, now raising a young family, basic bread and butter issues are critical.

Minal Pandey: This is cooking oil, this is a one litre bag, it was before it was a couple of months back, it was around 80 to 85 rupees, now it's been, the price has been raised up and it's now 150 rupees.

This is sugar. It was 30 rupees per kilogram a few months back, now it's been 35 to 38 rupees.

Peter Lloyd: So Nepal stands at the cross roads, after a ten year civil war, and a two year peace process, ordinary people will finally have their say.

But there is huge uncertainty about how they will vote, and how powerful forces will react to their decision.

Heather Ewart, Presenter: South Asia Correspondent Peter Lloyd in Kathmandu, on the eve of the Nepali election.