Voters of Siddharthanagar Municipality have complained that volunteers did not reach them to teach how to cast the vote in the second phase of local elections.

The District Election Office mobilised 543 volunteers to teach voters how to vote in Wednesday’s polls. “The volunteers did not visit our houses or even the settlement to teach us. Even the candidates are not showing concern to teach people how to vote,” said Yubaraj Pandey, of Goligadh in Siddharthanagar-9.

Ineffective voter education, large ballot papers and a high number of election symbols led to a high percentage of invalid votes during the fist-phase elections. Election Officer Humnath Gautam, however, said they had trained volunteers on teaching people how to cast vote properly. Each volunteer will receive Rs16,300 after completing the assignment, he said.

Gautam claimed that voter education remained ineffective due to the agitating parties’ protests and frequent changes in the election date.

“The campaign might be ineffective as higher authorities could not inspect the works of the volunteers on time,” he said.

The volunteers were deployed for the campaign in mid-April. “I don’t know how to stamp on the ballot paper for different candidates,” said Sangita Paudel of Siddharthanagar-9.