Rautahat/Bara, Sept 20

Vote counting in one local body each in Rautahat, Siraha and Bara was disrupted owing to disputes among political parties.

In Rauatahat, vote counting in Garuda Municipality-3 was disrupted from 5:00am owing to the disruption caused by CPN-MC in the wake of the victory of Nepali Congress ward chairperson candidate Krishna Kumar Sahani over the CPN-MC’s candidate by one vote.

CPN-MC has sought a recount of votes after its ward chair candidate Shailadevi Sahani secured 307 votes against the NC candidate’s 308. According to Returning Officer Nabin Kumar Joshi, initiatives are on to resume the vote counting process.

In Siraha, vote counting in Lahan municipality was disrupted for the second time today. Earlier, vote counting had been disrupted here after the Federal Socialist Forum-Nepal demanded  a recount in Ward No 3. The dispute ended after vote count was repeated here from today morning following agreement among political parties. Today, vote counting was disrupted again at a time when the final results of Ward No 5 were due to be made public after Nepali Congress party sought a recount.

Political parties including NC, Rastriya Prajatantra Party, Federal Socialist Forum-Nepal protested the change in the returning officer. Office of Chief Returning Officer had recalled Returning Officer Narayan Bahadur Thapa and sent Prem Prasad Luintel as a replacement citing Thapa’1s failure to do his duty satisfactorily.

In Bara, the vote counting has yet to resume after they were first disrupted yesterday. A dispute had first broken out among parties over unilateral opening of seals on ballot boxes. Over the same issue, Saroj Thakur representing the CPN-MC had even attempted to tear ballot papers. The process has yet to start despite frequent meetings among parties.

According to Returning officer Ramesh Ghimire, attempts are on to resume vote counting.