Vote counting in Bharatpur resumes after 15 hours

CHITWAN: The counting of votes in Bharatpur Metropolitan City that was halted for 15 hours resumed from 10:00 am today after a 10-point agreement was made between five political parties.

The counting was halted at 7:00 pm on Friday after Nepali Congress, CPN Maoist Centre and Rastriya Prajatantra Party Nepal expressed their dissatisfaction over the vote counting process.

As mentioned in the agreement, the political parties have demanded to mobilise only the required number of human resources for the counting process and set a separate desk for the chief or representative of parties in the counting venue.

Similarly, the parties also demanded the Chief Election Officer to select an Information Officer and disseminate information only through him.

Likewise, the agreement also stated that the result should be made public and data entry must be made only after confirming the result with the representative of the party.

The officials are currently counting the votes of ward number 10 and then would begin counting the ballots of ward number 29. The votes were being counted in chronological order earlier.

Likewise, the parties have also demanded to be informed about the number of ballot papers in a ballot box before opening them and asked to make the counting process transparent.

They have also demanded to form a working committee for solving issues that may arise during counting process.

Nepali Congress Chitwan-chapter Chairperson Jeet Narayan Shrestha, CPN-UML leader Krishna Bhakta Pokharel, CPN Maoist Centre leader Narayan Prasad Dahal, RPP Chitwan Chair Badri Timilsina and Rastriya Janamorcha leader Bhakti Ram Gautam had signed the agreement.