More than 26,000 votes were invalid in the first-past-the-post (FPTP) category of the elections to federal parliament and provincial assemblies in Kapilvastu district.

The District Election Office said 13,014 votes were declared invalid in the federal parliamentary polls whereas 13,803 votes turned to be invalid in the Provincial Assembly elections.

Voter turnout was 73.79 percent among 311,760 voters in Kapilvastu. More than 5,000 votes were invalid in Kapilvastu Constituency-3 alone, according to Chief Election Officer Omkarnath Upadhyay. 

Stamps were marked haphazardly on some ballots, some votes were marked 

with thumbprint and some papers had two stamps on two symbols.

More than 400 volunteers were mobilised to teach people how to vote. Around Rs8 million was allocated for voter education in the district.

At an interaction in the Capital on Wednesday, Chief Election Commissioner Ayodhee Prasad Yadav said invalid votes in the FPTP category of the federal parliament election averaged at 5.18 percent nationally.

According to the Election Commission, Province 2 had the highest percentage of invalid votes at nearly 9, while Manang had fewest void votes, 0.37 percent.

In the 2008 Constituent Assembly elections, the percentage of invalid votes was 5.15. It was 4.94 percent for the second CA polls held in 2013.

11,000 PR votes void in Nuwakot

NUWAKOT: More than 11,000 votes under the proportional representation category were wasted in Nuwakot district.

The District Election Office said many PR votes were invalid as people were not taught how to vote. The DEO said 7,207 PR votes were invalid in Constituency-1 and 4,153 in Constituency-2.