Former Miss Nepal Ashmi Shrestha Expresses Deep Frustration After Being Unable to Vote Due to Electoral Errors

Former Miss Nepal Ashmi Shrestha has expressed deep disappointment and anger over being unable to exercise her right to vote in the recent elections.

Sharing her experience on social media, she stated that she was deprived of voting due to technical errors by the Election Commission and misinformation provided by its staff.

Although her citizenship was issued in Chitwan, she chose the Ratna Rajya School in Baneshwor as her polling station based on her current residence and filled out the online form. Subsequently, she completed the process of submitting biometrics and necessary documents at the Election Commission office in Baneshwor.

A few days before the election, she became confused when her polling station appeared as Chitwan on the Nagarik App. To clear up the confusion, she contacted the Election Commission's toll-free number 1102, where officials assured her that her registration was in Baneshwor and she could vote by carrying her citizenship certificate. Trusting the assurance from the Commission's staff, she went to the center with her proof of address change and citizenship certificate, but her name was not found on the voter list there.

After her name could not be found at the polling center, she contacted the Commission's hotline again and received a completely different and irresponsible response than before. This time, the staff blamed her for the error, claiming that the center was determined based on the citizenship certificate and that the Commission bore no fault.

Shrestha mentioned that the Commission's style of giving one piece of information initially and then blaming the citizen at the last moment has deeply hurt her. She stated that if she had been given correct information in time, she would have been prepared to vote, even if it meant traveling to Chitwan, but the wrong information cost her a significant opportunity forever.

She described the pain of returning home empty-handed after being eager to cast her vote for change as an injustice against a citizen.