KATHMANDU: The Election Commission (EC) has said the decision to change the color of ballot paper for the local level election was made due to technical reason.

In a regular press meet on Thursday, Joint Spokesperson at EC Surya Prasad Aryal informed that the color in ballot paper was changed to identify the color variation of ballot paper and the swastik stamp.

The EC had decided to use green color for printing the symbol, information and security mark (SK-3081 spectrum bright green) in the ballot paper.

The EC made it clear in the press meet after the political parties reacted on the change in color.

It may be noted that the CPN-UML Chairperson KP Sharma Oli had raised concerns over the EC’s decision to use green color on ballots. In the 2017 elections, the ballot paper was printed blue.