Kathmandu, May 16

As votes for various local level positions are being counted in Kathmandu Metropolitan City, a noticeable number of votes have been found to be invalid. Of the 1,200 votes counted till 5:00 pm in KMC, more than 100 votes were found to be invalid.

Ram Bir Manandhar, an agent for CPN-UML mayoral candidate Bidya Sundar Shakya, said large size of ballot papers had created confusion among voters. A majority of voters, who unwittingly made mistakes, were not educated properly about the polls. He said people casting votes for UML mayoral candidate, even though the party has fielded none, was another example of lack of voter education.

Surya Gurung, an agent for a candidate of Ward No 1 of KMC, said some people cast invalid votes knowingly.

“A ballot paper was found with more than a vote for the same post,” he added. He also said that of the 611 votes counted this morning in the Ward No 1, five ballot papers had invalid votes for all seven posts.

“The large size of the ballot paper and placing of two symbols on the same row created confusion,” added Gurung.

Spokesperson for the Election Commission Surya Prasad Sharma told The Himalayan Times that the ratio of invalid votes was not as high as being rumoured. He, however, admitted that voters could not be educated adequately due to lack of time.

Former chief election commissioner Neel Kantha Upreti said the huge size of ballot paper was the main cause of high number of invalid votes.  Upreti also accused the parties for failing to adequately educate the voters.

Due to lack of time, the Election Commission also could not run door-to-door campaign to educate the voters.  “Political parties also focused only on campaigning and not on voter education,” he added.