Election Commission Halts Declaration of Results in Dhanusha-1 Following Party Request Amid Candidate Disqualification
Kathmandu. The Election Commission has stated that it has withheld the declaration of election results for Dhanusha-1 based on a letter received from the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP). After disqualifying the RSP candidate for Dhanusha District Constituency No. 1, Kishori Sah 'Kamal', the Commission refrained from announcing the final vote count based on a letter from the RSP after the counting was complete.
Acting Chief Election Commissioner Ramprasad Bhandari stated that the results were withheld based on a request submitted to the Election Commission on the political party's letterhead, asking to stop the announcement of the vote count for Dhanusha Constituency Number 1.
When asked, "Can the Election Commission stop the vote count based on a party's letter?", Chief Election Commissioner Bhandari replied that they stopped it because they received information that a case had been filed in court by the party and they were asked not to announce the results immediately.
"The Election Commission implements any complaint or application submitted by any party. That letter came, stating that this matter is currently sub judice in court and we have filed an application at the Commission making you the respondent. If we don't stop it after receiving such a letter, what should we do?" Bhandari questioned. "Furthermore, the Commission should investigate on its own whether a complaint has been filed against its decision. We stopped announcing the vote count after receiving information via a letter from the RSP. The case is currently being argued in court; we will proceed according to whatever decision comes," Bhandari said.
Yagya Bhattarai, Chief of the Law and Political Division at the Election Commission, claimed that the vote count for Dhanusha Constituency No. 1 would be announced based on the RSP's letter and the fact that a case is pending in court.
"After we disqualified the RSP candidate for Dhanusha-1, a letter came from the party asking us not to announce the vote count immediately because there is a case in court," Bhattarai said. "We withheld the vote count based solely on the RSP's letter. Even though no order came from the court to stop announcing the results, we stopped the vote count after seeing that a case was listed in the cause list," he said. "Now we will reach a decision according to whatever the Supreme Court decides."
On Falgun 18, the Commission had decided to cancel the candidacy of Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) candidate Kishori Sah 'Kamal' for Dhanusha District Constituency No. 1, citing evidence that his name was on the Credit Information Center's blacklist.
Since a case regarding that decision is pending in the Supreme Court, a letter was issued instructing not to announce the results under the first-past-the-post system for Dhanusha District Election Constituency No. 1 until an order is received from the court.
The Election Commission informed that a copy of the letter was sent to the Provincial Election Office to be served to the concerned Election Officer's Office and to inform the Commission of the compliance.
Meanwhile, the Communist Party of Nepal (CPN) has objected to the Election Commission not issuing the victory certificate to Matrika Yadav, who was a candidate for the House of Representatives from Dhanusha-1. In a statement issued on Monday, Govinda Acharya, Secretary of the Central Office, stated that it is a serious matter that the Commission, after canceling the candidacy of RSP candidate Kishori Sah Kamal as per the Election Act, 2074, has not issued the certificate to the winning candidate Yadav.
This specific news has been automatically translated by AI. As a result, there may be some inaccuracies or language errors.
