Biratnagar, July 16

Chief at the regional Election Office, Biratnagar, Prem Prasad Sanjel said the voter education programme launched during the second phase of civic polls in Morang was largely ineffective.

Speaking at an interaction among local leaders of different political parties held at the election office yesterday, Sanjel said although a huge amount of money was spent, the campaign in the district had yielded no substantial result.

He informed the district election office had deployed 640 volunteers for voter education, paying Rs 15, 000 to each of them during the second phase of local level elections.

Earlier, the election office had estimated that invalid votes would not exceed 7 per cent of the total votes cast, but the figure stood at 25 per cent in the recently held civic polls in the district, according to Sanjel.

He said his office had made a name-list of under-performing volunteers, adding that those volunteers would not be hired for similar tasks in the future.

The list comprises names of Lalita Kumari Majhi, deployed in Sundarharincha Municipality, Sita Yadav deployed in Budhiganga Rural Municipality and Aasha Jha deployed in Biratnagar Metropolitan City.