Miscellaneous
Vote count disrupted
The Election Commission (EC) on Sunday instructed the election officials of Pokhara-Lekhnath Metropolitan City to resume the vote count that was halted on Saturday after the Swastika stamps on some ballot papers from ward-17 were reportedly found to be larger than the original ones.The Election Commission (EC) on Sunday instructed the election officials of Pokhara-Lekhnath Metropolitan City to resume the vote count that was halted on Saturday after the Swastika stamps on some ballot papers from ward-17 were reportedly found to be larger than the original ones.
Despite the EC’s directive, the vote count had not resumed until late Sunday evening, as the political parties, except CPN-UML, refused to participate in the counting process.
An all-party meeting held earlier in the day had consulted the issue with the EC, which has instructed the election office to resume the count if the ballot papers in question were signed by election officials.
The representatives from Nepali Congress had demanded the count be stopped immediately after finding that the Swastika stamps on some of the ballot papers were “suspiciously large”.
It is learnt the NC’s suspicion was aroused because the disputed ballot papers, with the reportedly unconventionally large stamps, had votes in favour of UML.
A local NC representative said that the count had to be stopped because the election officials could not give them satisfactory explanation.
Chief Election Official Nagendra Lal Karna, meanwhile, has urged the concerned parties to take part in the vote count.
He added that the vote count was going to take place anyway, regardless of the protest, as per the EC’s directive.
The election office was planning to call a press meet later in the night to announce its decision.