An Election Commission (EC) decision on Bharatpur vote counting fiasco set an already agitated CPN-UML’s teeth on edge on Saturday, with one of its senior leaders saying that the party would move the court against the poll body’s call for re-election in Ward 19 of Bharatpur Metropolitan City.

Saturday’s development could also have an impact on Sunday’s scheduled voting in Parliament to elect the new prime minister, for which Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba is the sole candidate, with the main opposition saying that it would not let the House function. 

Protesting against Sunday’s incident at a vote counting centre in Bharatpur in which ballot papers were torn allegedly by CPN (Maoist Centre) representatives, the UML has been obstructing House proceedings and demanding immediate resumption of vote counting. 

“We have decided to move the court,” said UML standing committee member Subas Chandra Nembang after the party’s standing committee meeting on Saturday. 

The meeting, according to UML leaders, concluded that the EC decision on Bharatpur incident was unfortunate and against the spirit of election laws and the constitution. 

The UML has also taken exception to the move of what it called bypassing the parliamentary procedure while publishing the schedule for the prime ministerial election. 

We are unaware of prime ministerial election in Parliament as the Speaker has not informed the House about the President’s letter regarding formation of new government, a UML leader said. 

Speaker Onasari Gharti’s plan to inform the House about the President’s letter to form a majority government could not materialise on Thursday after the UML continued its House obstruction. 

The Parliament Secretariat on Friday published the schedule for the election of prime minister. But Nembang said since Parliament elects the prime minister, it must be informed about the process. “The process of electing the prime minister cannot be started outside Parliament,” said Nembang.