CHITWAN, May 29: The CPN-UML Chitwan has demanded to resume the vote counting at earliest of the Bharatpur Municipality. The party organizing a press meet on Monday morning has asked the district election office to start the vote counting which was halted following the cadres of CPN (Maoist Center) tore the ballot the papers on Sunday mid night.
“We found two cadres Dron Shiwakoti and Madhu Neupane of CPN (Maoist Center) red hand involved in the incident and immediately handed over to the police”, reads the statement distributed during the press meet.
The party, through the statement, informed that the party demanded the district election officer to make public the incident through the media and continue the counting of the ballot papers excluding the tore papers.
However the party has blamed the district election office for ignoring the demand, said Krishna Bhakta Pokharel, district chairman of the party, in the press meet.
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Meanwhile, the district election office is preparing to send the report of the incident to the Election Commission (EC), said election officer Kabi Prasad Neupane adding that the next step will be taken as per the direction from the EC.
Vote counting in Chitwan has been adjourned after Maoist cadres tore ballot papers in the mid-night when the counting was about to complete.
By the time the incident took place, CPN-UML candidate for mayor, Devi Gyawali was leading the vote count with 41, 641 votes while Maoist Center's Renu Dahal was at 40,908 votes. There was speculation that Dahal would shrink the vote margin significantly while counting votes from ward number 19 of the city but by the time incident took place, she was able to cover only 51 votes to the margin.
