Voter education programmes weak in Banke, 13,442 votes invalid

By Siraj Khan, Nepalgunj, March 10: A significant number of votes have been found invalid in Banke district despite voter education programmes conducted in all eight local levels prior to the election of members of the House of Representatives.

According to the District Election Office, Banke, a total of 13,442 votes were invalid in the district during the House of Representatives election 2082 in constituencies 1, 2 and 3.

In the House of Representatives election 2079, the number of invalid votes in the district stood at 15,335. Although the number has slightly decreased this time, it has not dropped significantly.

Chief of the District Election Office, Banke, Tek Bahadur Shahi, said that voter education programmes were conducted in all 81 wards of the eight local levels of the district. However, many ballot papers were invalidated as voters marked two or more election symbols or even placed thumbprints on the ballot papers.

He also said that some voters stamped above the election symbol, while others stamped the symbols of all candidates seeking votes. Similarly, in the proportional representation ballot, some voters stamped multiple symbols, resulting in invalid votes.

The District Election Office said that despite voter education programmes, the results show that they were not effective enough.

According to Shahi, in constituency-1, 4,085 of 74,992 votes cast were invalid. Likewise, 5,306 votes out of 72,007 votes cast were invalid in constituency no. 2, while 4,051 votes out of 74,310 votes cast were invalid in constituency 3.

Among the three constituencies, constituency no. 2 recorded the highest number of invalid votes, while constituency no. 3 recorded the lowest.

The District Election Office, Banke, said that 221,309 votes were cast out of the total 350,371 registered voters in the district.