Chitwan, May 29
The CPN-UML Chitwan District Committee has demanded that the election officials immediately resume halted vote counting in Bharatpur Metropolitan City after taking action against the guilty.
The counting had been halted midnight after some cadres of the CPN-Maoist Centre reportedly torn ballot papers.
Organising a press conference this morning, the UML Chitwan Chairman and lawmaker Krishna Bhakta Pokharel claimed that election officials and police were already warned of some untoward incidents, but they deliberately ignored the warnings leading to the chaos.
“We had informed stakeholders that the Maoists were doing something at the counting venue,” Pokharel said, “This is a criminal activity carried out with the state support.”
“The vote counting should be resumed immediately after keeping the torn ballot papers separately,” he added.
Pokharel was of the view that the Maoists planned the disturbance after knowing that their mayoral candidate Renu Dahal was certain to lose.
Meanwhile, the UML is organising a protest rally and assembly today in the wake of the dispute.
