KATHMANDU, NOVEMBER 13
The Elections to the House of Representatives and Provincial Assembly (Vote Counting) Directive issued by the Election Commission has necessary legal provisions to ensure smooth vote counting and avoid potential incidents of rigging and ballot counting centre capture.
Section 28 of the directive has set out the circumstances which will be considered as capture of a ballot counting centre. It said capture of ballot counting centre would be referred to such circumstances wherein any person or group influences the ballot counting process by resorting to undue force, issuing threat or intimidating the officials concerned.
"Similarly, if a person or group obstructs election officers or employees from carrying out their duties and responsibilities, or snatches ballot papers, ballot box and other materials in a manner to disrupt the ballot counting process, it will be deemed capture of ballot counting centre," it reads.
In the event of occurrence of such incidents, the election officer will suspend the ballot counting process immediately and provide information thereof to the chief election officer and the Election Commission.
Upon receipt of that information, the EC will depute an election commissioner or a monitoring team to the ballot counting centre for onsite investigation or inquiry. "If the investigation report proves the capture of ballot counting centre, the EC may declare all the ballot papers of the concerned polling centre illegal and cancel the vote of such a centre," it reads. Subsequently, the election officer will have to issue a notice specifying the venue, date and time for re-voting in the concerned polling centre.
The election officer may seek help of any government or security agency in the course of vote counting. Likewise, the directive requires the election officer to keep confidential the valid and invalid ballots and counterfoils of ballot papers by sealing them so that no one can have access to them.
Likewise, the directive has also stipulated the provisions for demanding re-counting of vote. Any candidate or his/her representative dissatisfied with the vote counting may submit an application along with reasons to the election officer for re-counting of vote before completion of vote counting or sealing the ballot papers.
If re-counting of vote is deemed necessary during an inquiry into the application, the election officer may proceed with recounting.
A version of this article appears in the print on November 14, 2022 of The Himalayan Times.
