Vote count of Nepal's second phase election vote hits snag

By Binod Prasad Adhikari

Kathmandu [Nepal], July 3 (ANI): The vote counting of Nepal's second phase local polls has hit a snag because of various technical and logistic problems.

The Election Commission (EC), Nepal has not been able to start the vote counting of the 6 local levels because of various problems. The poll panel has acknowledged that it is trying to start the vote counting in the disputed areas.

"According to the information received by Joint Election Operation Center (JEOC) counting of votes are underway in 91 local levels and the attempt to start the counting over the 6 levels are being made," said a statement issued by the commission on Monday.

The vote counting of Nepal always has been hard task for the EC as political parties raise objections and hinder the counting process demanding a recount.

The commission on Sunday counted the votes in Jhapa-1, the home district of opposition party chief K. P. Sharma Oli, for the third time after the opposition objected over the result. The final result came for the Rastriya Prajatantra Party after defeating Communist Party of Nepal- Unified Marxist Leninist (CPN-UML) candidate with difference of seven votes.

Meanwhile, the commission on Sunday ruled that the number of ballots in the boxes will be accepted as the number of votes cast to announce the results.

"The election commission which held the election on 28th June hereby directs the Chief Election Commissioner and Election Commissioner to understand the number of ballots in the boxes as the number of votes casted and continue the counting of votes," it decided Saturday as more ballots were found inside the ballot boxes.

After six-day-long voting in 35 districts on June 28 for the second phase of local elections, only vote count for 18 districts is complete, said EC.

The poll body has informed that the results of 242 local levels out of 334 have been declared by by Monday afternoon. As per the results, CPN-UML has won over 44 local levels of Province no. 1, 25 in Province no. 5 and 29 in province no. 7.

The Nepali Congress on other hand has registered victory over 29 local levels in province no. 1, 23 in province no. 5 and 35 in province no. 7. (ANI)

This story has not been edited. It has been published as provided by ANI