KATHMANDU, DECEMBER 13

The Central Election Committee of the Nepali Congress that has been conducting the party's 14th general convention extended the voting time till 9:00pm as only 3,000 voters could cast votes till 7:00 pm.

Incumbent NC President Sher Bahadur Deuba, other senior leaders Shekhar Koirala, Bimalendra Nidhi, Prakash Man Singh and youth leader Kalyan Gurung are contesting elections for party president.

According to Coordinator of NC Central Election Committee Gopal Krishna Ghimire, voting started three hours late in the morning as the printing of ballot papers could not be completed on time. There are 4,743 representatives who can cast their votes.

Ghimire said voting time would be extended if necessary.

'We want to ensure that all voters have the opportunity to cast their votes and if we need to extend voting time, we can again extend the voting time,' Ghimire said.

The NC National Convention will elect candidates contesting elections for 134 posts, including 13 office bearers.

Voters cast their votes from three booths. As voters cast votes from 29 ballot papers, a single voter took half-an-hour to one hour to cast his/her vote. Votes for party president will be counted first and votes for other posts will be counted only after the counting of votes for president is over.

A version of this article appears in the print on December 14, 2021, of The Himalayan Times.