Kavre, April 15:

Over 9,000 votes cast under first-past-the-post (FPTP) system in CA polls were invalid in Kavre.

According to the district election office, of the 210,410 votes cast in four constituencies of the district, 9,155 votes were invalid. This accounts to 4.35 per cent of the total votes cast.

Of the 82,390 voters in Constituency No 1, only 51,800 voters had cast their votes of which 2,066 were invalid. Maoist’s Surya Man Dong won the election with 27,471 votes from this constituency. In Constituency No 2, only 50,164 had cast votes. There were 76,884 eligible voters. In this constituency, 2,496 votes were invalid. Maoist candidate Akkal Bahadur Thing won the election with 18,207 votes from this constituency.

Of the total 75,929 voters in Constituency No 3, only 52,945 voters had cast their votes of which 2,251 were invalid. In this constituency, UML’s Krishna Prasad Sapkota won the election by securing 16,594 votes.

Among 86,502 eligible voters in Constituency No 4, only 55,501 had cast votes of which 2,342 votes were invalid. Maoist’s Tej Bahadur Mijar won the election from this constituency with 22,065 votes.

District election officer Harish Chandra Ghimire attributed lack of education for the high number of invalid votes. Another poll official said the situation appeared partly because the parties did not reach to all voters.

A report from Jhapa said 86 candidates for the FPTP system got less than 10 per cent of the total valid votes each, thus having their security deposit of Rs 3,000 each seized.

Altogether 108 candidates including those from the 19 parties and independent ones, were in the poll fray in the district.

Candidates of the CPN-Maoist, Nepali Congress, CPN-UML and one from the Sadbhavana Party were able to secure more than 10 per cent votes.

In all seven constituencies in the district, the three major parties — CPN-Maoist, Nepali Congress, and CPN-UML — were competing for the seats.

The Maoist candidates won in five constituencies — Dharma Prasad Ghimire in Constituency No1, Gaurishanker Khadka in Constituency No 2, Purna Singh Rajbanshi in Constituency No 3, Dharmashila Chapagai in Constituency No 4 and Bishwodip Lingden in Constituency No 7. An NC candidate Keshav Kumar Budhathoki and a CPN-UML candidate Dipak Karki were elected from the Constituency Nos 5 and 6 respectively.

Twelve of the 15 candidates in the fray in Constituency No 1 failed to secure 10 per cent votes, in Constituency No 2, 14 of 17 candidates got less than 10 per cent of total valid votes, in Constituency No 3, altogether 11 of 14 candidates lost their deposits.

In Constituency No 4, 11 of 14 candidates lost their deposits, while the 10 of 14 candidates in Constituency No 5 failed to secure 10 per cent votes each. Eleven of the 14 candidates in the fray in constituency no. 6 failed to secure deposit and in Constituency No 7, 17 of 20 candidates lost their deposits.