KATHMANDU: Voting for the leadership election under the 15th general convention of the Nepali Congress, which was scheduled for Thursday, has been postponed due to technical and managerial difficulties. The election committee stated that it was unable to begin the voting process at the designated time.
Raju Katuwal, member secretary of the election committee, explained that the process of technical verification, legitimacy testing, and registration took longer than expected due to the large number of participants, including 7,317 voters and 850 candidates. Additionally, time was required to resolve claims and objections raised during the process.
Delays in ballot paper printing also contributed to the postponement. Katuwal noted that the committee had to print approximately 200,000 ballot papers, requiring the design of at least 23 different types of ballots. While the committee had estimated that printing would be completed by 1 p.m., it was not achieved within the timeframe.
Although the ballot papers have now been received, the committee decided against holding the vote on Thursday evening, citing security concerns and other technical challenges. Katuwal stated that despite pressure from party leaders to commence voting, the technical difficulties made it impossible to proceed as planned.
According to the election committee, voting will now begin at 7 a.m. on Friday and will continue until 3 p.m.
