KATHMANDU, May 15: It took around 18 hours to count just 2, 000 votes and strike a deal among candidates in a ward of the Lalitpur Metropolitan City (LMC). There are 29 wards in the LMC.
With this snail-pace vote counting, it might take around 20 days to complete the vote counting in the metropolis.
The vote count at ward no. 1 of LMC is over.
No votes have been counted after 1,540 votes secured by mayoral candidates.
It took 32 hours to count just 2,424 votes!
The results of Mahalaxmi and Godawari are yet to come. The results of one ward in Konjyosom and the other in Mahankal has come out.
According to returning officers, the vote counting was delayed after it took a long time to forge agreement on the valid and invalid ballot papers and the selection of representatives of the candidates.
Following the complaints expressed by the people over the slow vote counting process, Chief District Officer (CDO) Dipak Kafle urged the concerned officials to speed up the vote counting.
“Let’s count votes as quickly as possible. I have just returned from a metropolitan city and two municipalities after taking stock of the vote counting process,” said CDO Kafle.
According to Hari Prasad Regmi, the returning officer of Godawari Municipality, vote count is getting delayed since the election procedure and ballot papers area quite new for returning officers, candidates and voters.
Regmi said the vote count results of wards have not come out yet officially.
Similarly, Ram Ghimire of Mahalaxmi Municipality said they are preparing to announce the vote count results after resolving minor technical issues.
With its entire panel, Nepali Congress candidate Nirmal Tandukar has been elected in LMC-1.
Similarly, UML candidate Ram Krishna Acharya has been elected with its panel at Mahankal Rural Municipality-6.
Similarly, CPN (MC) candidate Santa Lama has been elected at ward no. 1 of Konjyosom.
