Over 13,400 Votes Declared Invalid in Nepal's Banke District During Federal Elections

Nepalgunj. A total of 13,442 votes were declared invalid in Banke district. These invalid votes were recorded during the House of Representatives election in constituencies 1, 2, and 3 of the district. Tek Bahadur Shahi, Chief of the District Election Office, Banke, stated that despite voter education campaigns, instances of voters marking two symbols or using thumb impressions were found.

He further mentioned that votes were found stamped over symbols, stamped on the symbols of all contesting parties, and all symbols marked in the proportional representation section. According to Shahi, out of the total 74,992 votes cast in Banke's Constituency No. 1, 4,085 were invalid; in Constituency No. 2, out of 72,027 total votes, 5,306 were invalid; and in Constituency No. 3, out of 74,310 total votes, 4,051 were invalid.

Among these, Constituency No. 2 had the highest number of invalid votes, while Constituency No. 3 had the lowest. The District Election Office, Banke, reported that out of 350,371 registered voters in the district, 221,309 votes were cast. In the 2079 House of Representatives election in Banke, 15,335 votes were declared invalid.

Meanwhile, in Banke's Constituency No. 1 for the proportional representation category, the Rastriya Swatantra Party, with the bell symbol, secured the highest number of votes at 34,382. The Nepali Congress, with the tree symbol, came in second with 14,224 votes, and the CPN (UML), with the sun symbol, secured the third position with 10,320 votes in the proportional representation category for Constituency No. 1.

The Communist Party of Nepal secured 5,843 votes, and the Rastriya Prajatantra Party garnered 4,284 votes in the proportional representation category.