Disrupted vote count resumes in Dharan Sub-metropolis

SUNSARI: Dharan Sub-metropolitan city of Sunsari, which was suspended since Wednesday afternoon due to a dispute, has resumed.

According to Chief Election Officer Pushkar Raj Nepal, the counting of votes has resumed following discussions on the disputed ward no. 20.

“It started at 8 am following the direction to count votes from the Election Commission,” Nepal said.

He said that the counting of votes in wards 8, 19, and 12 would continue.

The controversy started when the Maoist Center lost the ward chairman by four votes.

In that ward, 18 votes did not have the signature of the polling officer. Earlier, the ballot papers were considered invalid. After the NC won the ward chairmanship by four votes, the Maoists demanded that all ballot papers should be considered valid.

The Maoists staged a protest after the other parties did not agree to the demand. The Maoist Center had demanded action against the election officer, recount of 18 invalid votes, and re-polling.

Nepal said that the Commission has instructed the polling officer to recommend action, consider the invalid vote as invalid, and continue counting votes.