‘Communication minister demanded recounting of votes after he was certain to lose’

Published On: November 27, 2022 04:15 PM NPT By: Republica | @RepublicaNepal

KATHMANDU, Nov 27: Jagdish Prasad Kusiyat, CPN (UML) candidate for House of Representatives (HoR) from Sunsari Constituency-4, has accused Minister for Information and Communication Technology Gyanendra Bahadur Karki of blocking the counting of votes after it was certain that he would lose.

Kusiyat said Minister Karki did not allow the counting of votes to proceed ahead at the last moment when he was sure that he would lose the election.

"Probably, he (Minister Karki) has accepted the defeat intellectually,” said the CPN (UML) candidate.

After Minister Karki demanded a recount of votes on Saturday afternoon saying it was rigged, the Office of the Chief Election Officer convened an all-party meeting this morning (Sunday) to seek consensus from an all-party meeting to resume the vote count. However, Minister Karki was adamant that the vote should be counted again. As a result, the counting process has not yet started. UML candidate Kusiyat said that he has requested the Election Commission to start counting the remaining votes immediately.

On the other hand, the Office of the Chief Election Officer has said that efforts are being made to restart the vote counting process after reaching an agreement between the candidates of both the parties.