Counting of votes resumes after Chief Electoral Officer's inspection
We use Google Cloud Translation Services. Google requires we provide the following disclaimer relating to use of this service:
This service may contain translations powered by Google. Google disclaims all warranties related to the translations, expressed or implied, including any warranties of accuracy, reliability, and any implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and noninfringement.
A controversy has arisen during the counting of votes for the ongoing House of Representatives election in Ramechhap over the upholding of the invalid votes of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). Although the counting of votes was disrupted for some time due to the controversy, it has been resumed after an inquiry by the Chief Electoral Officer.
While the vote counting was underway, representatives of other political parties immediately protested after the staff of the counting team included a clearly invalid vote with the RSVP's election symbol in the list of valid votes.
The counting process was suspended for some time after party representatives shouted slogans saying that the staff had erroneously considered the vote valid.
As the situation became tense, Chief Electoral Officer Rajendra Nepal himself reached the counting site and checked the disputed ballot paper. During the check, it was confirmed that the ballot paper was 'invalid' as per the rules. After that, it was decided to keep the vote in the list of invalid votes, accepting the shortcomings of the staff.
Following the decision of the Chief Electoral Officer Nepal, an agreement was reached among the party representatives and the stalled vote counting has been resumed.
The Chief Electoral Officer Nepal has instructed the staff assigned to the counting to ensure that such technical errors do not recur in the coming days and to exercise full vigilance.
