Sluggish pace of vote counting in Dhangadi Sub-Metropolis irks residents

Dhangadi, July 1

Three days after the elections, vote counting of only one ward has completed in Dhangadi sub-metropolis, much to the dismay of the people eagerly waiting for the final results.

A total of 54,369 votes were cast in the sub-metropolis, which has a total of 19 wards. “Of the total 19 wards, they have finished counting only 3627 ballots of ward number one so far; if the counting is to take place at this pace, it will take months to finish vote counting,” said Dhaniraj Chaudhary of ward number 18, Phulbari.

Krishnaraj Joshi of ward number 2, Baiya Bahedi of the sub-metropolis rued the delay. “The whole town is abuzz with election gossip, with people telling the chances of one or the other candidate to win, but see the pace of the vote count, I feel it will take weeks to complete the vote counting here,” he said, accusing the persons involved in the vote count of taking unnecessary time.

The tardy sluggish vote count has also got the local political parties irked. “We’re waiting for the results, but they have finished the counting of only one ward in two days,” said CPN-MC’s Ramesh Dhami. Meanwhile, in view of the slow progress in vote counting, five separate teams have now been formed and tasked with the job.

“As the counting earlier was going very slow, we’ve started vote counting by forming five teams from Friday keeping in view the Election Commission’s plan to complete vote counting in all local levels within a week’s time,” said returning officer Dhansingh Mahara. Close circuit cameras have been installed at the vote counting site to ensure fairness during the counting. In fact, vote count has been sluggish in other local levels too in Kailali that comprises one sub-metropolis, six municipalities and sixrural municipalities.