Bara, September 26

Vote counting, which was halted in Kalaiya Sub-metropolitan City, Bara, was yet to resume till this evening.

Vote counting was halted after maximum voters cast their vote without using the swastik stamps in Ward No 20 of the sub-metropolis.

A multi-party meeting has yet to decide till late night what to do as the most voters did not use the swastik stamp while casting ballots. Chief Returning Officer Ritendra Thapa said a decision would be taken as per the response of the Election Commission.

“The votes were wrong as per the law, but we have to wait for the Election Commission’s consent,” Thapa added. He said he response had yet to reach them.

The CPN-UML candidate Binod Sah of Ward No 20 said re-election had to be conducted as even one vote was meaningful. “The problem occurred due to the negligence on the part of staffers deployed at the polling station,” he said. Sah said this happened as planned.

As many as 1,300 votes have been counted and 1,166 votes are yet to be counted in the ward.

Before vote counting stopped, Sah was leading with 70 votes while Rajesh Raya Yadav from Nepali Congress was following Binod.