Counting of votes in Nepal local elections hits a snag

The vote counting in Nepal’s second phase local polls has hit a snag because of various technical and logistic problems. The Election Commission (EC) of Nepal has not been able to start the vote counting of the six local levels because of various problems. The poll panel has acknowledged that it is trying to start the vote counting in the disputed areas.“According to the information received by Joint Election Operation Centre (JEOC) counting of votes is underway in 91 local levels and the attempt to start the counting over the six levels is being made,” said a statement issued by the EC yesterday.The vote counting always has been hard task for the EC as political parties raise objections and hinder the counting process demanding a recount.The commission on Sunday counted the votes in Jhapa-1, the home district of opposition party chief K P Sharma Oli, for the third time after the opposition objected over the result. The final result came for the Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) after defeating Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist Leninist (CPN-UML) candidate with difference of seven votes.The EC on Sunday ruled that the number of ballots in the boxes will be accepted as the number of votes cast to announce the results.“The EC which held the election on June 28 hereby directs the chief election commissioner and election commissioner to understand the number of ballots in the boxes as the number of votes cast and continue the counting of votes,” it decided Saturday as more ballots were found inside the ballot boxes.After six-day-long voting in 35 districts on June 28 for the second phase of local elections, only vote count for 18 districts is complete, said EC.The poll body has informed that the results of 242 local levels out of 334 have been declared by yesterday. As per the results, CPN-UML has won over 44 local levels of Province 1, 25 in Province 5 and 29 in Province 7.The Nepali Congress on other hand has registered victory over 29 local levels in Province 1, 23 in Province 5 and 35 in Province 7.