“Voters should be imparted information about elections in groups, but no such activity has been carried out as of yet. The election officials visiting the district do not properly educate the voters,” said Tulsi Yadav of Rampura VDC. “Many of the locals are not even aware about the purpose of elections,” added Yadav. [break]
Former chief of Ruchang VDC-4 Dhan Bahadur Rakhim said neither the election officials nor the candidates have visited their village. “Since we have no knowledge of manifestos prepared by the political parties we will vote for the candidate who promises to build roads in our village,” said Rakhim.
Chief of Jaubari VDC Krishna Bahadur Rana said the leaders have only sought votes.
“They have only made tall promises. Locals know that the promises would not be kept,” said Rana.
Meanwhile, CPN-Maoist candidate for constituency 2 of the district, Moti Rijal said that the locals are more interested in learning about what the parties have said in their election manifestos. “We are educating the locals about CA elections and informing them about our development agendas,” said Rijal.
Many of the votes cast in the previous polls were invalid due to lack of voter education. Of the total 273,671 votes cast in the previous polls, 141,100 votes were invalid.
“This was one of the reasons why I lost in the previous polls,” said Nepali Congress candidate Dev Karan Kalwar. He was defeated by Vice-chairman of Tarai Madhes Democratic Party Hridesh Tripati.
However, Chief District Officer Narahari Ghimire said election officials are visiting every household in the district to educate the voters.
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