UDAYAPUR, Nov 29: The counting of votes in Udayapur-1 that was suspended for 48 hours has resumed. The counting, which was halted after 100 direct ballots of the Province Assembly were found in the ballot box of the House of Representatives at 10 am on Sunday, resumed from 10:30 am on Tuesday.
After an all-party meeting held by The Chief Election Officer to resume the stalled counting from Sunday morning failed to reach an agreement, the task was handed over to the Election Commission. Although the office issued a notice to resume the counting three times saying that it will be done according to the instructions of the commission, it could not be done.
UML and other parties refused to hold the meeting, demanding a re-polling earlier than that, for calling the meeting at 7:00 pm after not reaching an agreement on issuing a notice to resume counting from 4:00 pm on Sunday. Then another notice was issued that the counting was postponed to 8:00 AM on Monday and will start from 1:00 PM.
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Until then, the Election Commission had sent a letter of instruction to continue counting according to the all-party agreement reached before the counting of votes, even when the office held a meeting, no agreement was reached. The election officer's office again addressed the commission. Waiting for further instructions, the office issued a notice to resume the counting from 8:00 pm on Monday, but the counting could not be done due to lack of consensus among the parties.
According to the instructions given by the Commission on Tuesday morning, during the investigation of the votes of the Province Assembly in the ballot box of the House of Representatives, it was found that the 100 votes cast were signed by the polling officer of the same center. According to the provisions of the Election Act, if any ballot other than the specified number of ballots are found to be invalidated after the end of voting, the office of the Chief Electoral Officer decided to invalidate all additional votes.
On the other hand, UML boycotted the counting process and left the polling station chanting slogans. District Election Officer Khemraj Koirala said that the counting of votes in the Triyuga Namuna Secondary School Bhawan was fraudulent and that the ruling parties had broken the rules under the guise of police administration.
According to the calculation till 6:50 am on Sunday morning, when 67 thousand 82 votes were counted in area no. 1, the candidate of the alliance, Congress Central Member Dr. Narayan Khadka is in the lead. He got 27,484 votes while UML's Manju Kumari Chaudhary got 25,659 votes. According to the office, 76,538 votes were cast in Udayapur-1.
