Kathmandu, June 1

The National Human Rights Commission today asked all parties concerned to respect people’s mandate.

Issuing a press statement, the NHRC said that its attention had been drawn to the Bharatpur Metropolitan City incident, where vote counting was halted after some ballot papers were torn by the representatives of political parties.

“Voter’s right to cast votes to  choose their  candidates and the candidates’ rights to be elected by securing maximum votes  should be respected by all parties concerned,”  reads the statement issued by NHRC’s Spokesperson Mohna Ansari.

The NHRC further said  that it is the responsibility of all political parties, candidates and their representatives to let elections be held in a free and fair environment as per the Universal Declaration of Human Rights-1948, International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights-1966 and  Election code of Conduct-2017.

The  rights body had sent a monitoring team to Bharatpur in the immediate aftermath of the Bharatpur  incident.

The commission said that it had sent a letter to the to the Election Commission asking it to be cautious to prevent such incidents in future and recommended action against the guilty involved in the incident.