DHARAN, July 4: Chief Election Officer, Chief District Officer and District Police Officer have arrived at Sabhagriha after the dispute cropped up at the counting center in Dharan.

Chief Election Officer Arjun Prasad Koirala, CDO Gopal Parajuli, SP  Posh Raj Pokharel have reached the counting center after the counting did not resume since Monday midnight.

The vote counting has not resumed despite an all-party meeting that is taking place since 10 am today. The all-party meeting is taking place including the Chief Election Officer.

The CPN (Maoist Center) cadres are demonstrating at the Sabhagriha accusing that there had been a vote rigging.

The dispute started after a vote cast for Federal Socialist Forum Nepal (FSFN) candidate was found to have been added to the votes of Marxist Leninist candidate while verifying the counting just before it was formally announced.

No sooner the incident came to the fore than the Maoist Center and FSFN cadres started protesting against the vote counting.

As many as nine parties including FSFN and Maoist Center had formed an electoral alliance to contest the local elections in Dharan Sub-metropolitan City on June 28. 

The dispute began when the counting update was about to be made public after the counting of ward no. 9 and 10 was over. 

With the vote counting up to ward no. 8 over, Nepali Congress has won in wards 1, 2 and   5 while UML has won in wards 3, 4, 6, 7 and 8. 

 
• counting
 
• vote rigging
 
• sub-metropolis