Ramechhap, May 13

Even as the Election Commission has claimed to have taken its voter’s education programme to every nook and cranny in Ramechhap, most people living in and around the district headquarters are unaware of the voting process, leading to a high risk of large number of null votes during civic elections taking place tomorrow in the district.

A number of voters who came to the Akashe Hawaimaidan voting centre in the headquarters to receive their voter’s identity card today said nobody approached them to teach about the voting process. “Though I’ve heard about teams deployed in the villages for voters’ education, no one has so far come to us for anything of that sort,” said Arjun

“Though I’ve heard about teams deployed in the villages for voters’ education, no one has so far come to us for anything of that sort,” said Arjun Satyal of Manthali Municipality-1 Bhaishweshwor.

“As many people in my village and in the neighbouring villages don’t know how to vote and where to put the voting stamp, there are high chances of null votes,” he added, while 64-year-old Aite Majhi of Bhaishweshwor and a septuagenarian Tirtharaj Subedi from Machchhedandi also lamented about not having any knowledge of the voting process.

Despite government investment of millions of rupees for voter education in Ramechhap, many voters don’t know how to cast vote

The government has spent millions of rupees for voter’s education in the run up to the election in Ramechhap alone. For the same purpose, more than 200 persons were assigned. Stakeholders have blamed the ineffective voter’s education programme to

Stakeholders have blamed the ineffective voter’s education programme to negligence of the persons assigned with the job and the apathy of the District Election Office to do their part of monitoring.

As per reports, the case of the failure of voter’s education programme is not only in a select few places but everywhere, and in all eight local bodies in the district. Ramechhap has a total of eight local bodies including two municipalities, namely Manthali and Ramechhap, and six rural municipalities.