KATHMANDU, May 29: The Election Commission (EC) is waiting for details from returning officer on how to move ahead in completing vote counting of Bharatpur Metropolitan City.
“We are awaiting details from the ground. By going through the details a Board meeting will decide possible way out,” said EC Spokesperson Surya Prasad Sharma.
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The meeting, according to Spokesperson, will take place today itself. EC officials have termed the incident as an "unfortunate case"
Except incident of ballot paper tearing, EC has not received anything regarding its nature and possible involvement from the ground. Chief Returning Officer in the district is preparing to form a probe to investigate into incident.
Electoral law provides various options ranging from re-counting ballots to conducting fresh polls once dispute emerges among parties contesting the elections.
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.
