Kathmandu, May 30
Data from the Election Commission have shown that more than 76,000 votes turned invalid in the elections held to choose the deputy mayor of Kathmandu Metropolitan City.
Whereas Nepali Congress candidate Hariprabha Khagdi won the polls with 58,522 votes, the number of invalid votes is far higher than that.
Total 197,227 votes had been cast in the most populous metropolis on May 14, but totalling the valid votes received by all contenders made only 120,767.
That means 76,464 votes were invalid.
Of total invalid votes, 6,183 ballot papers were entirely invalid; all the votes these people cast for all positions from mayor to ward member did not make any difference.
Parties attribute such a huge number of invalid votes to the insufficient voters’ education and alliances formed between parties.
For example, most of the invalid votes in the deputy mayoral elections had been stamped on the sun, the election symbol of CPN-UML. But, the party did not have any candidate for the post as it had extended support to the Rastriya Prajatantra Party’s Rajaram Shrestha.
In the mayoral polls, total 29,941 votes were invalid.
