INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
KATHMANDU, MAY 13People had to wait too long in the queue to cast their vote due to lack of proper management at the
Local level polls: 149,838 in fray for 35,221 posts
Candidacy registration for local level polls begins
People waited more than two hours to cast the ballot.
Polls were held peacefully in most polling centres of
Kathmandu with voters keen to cast their votes.
A woman showing her thumb with ink
mark after casting her vote in Kathmandu
A volunteer at the polling centre of Mahalaxmi Municipality-1,
Rural Municipality Building, Imadol, said people started coming before 7:00am.The voting started exactly on time and no misconduct was
People seemed eager to cast their votes
Even the ill and differently-abled people got opportunity to cast their votes.One voter at Imadol said, "I had to stay in the queue for more
than two hours to cast my vote, but apart from lack of management of the voter list, everything else was fine here."Another volunteer said
everything was well-managed and added, "We have been working efficiently and even election officials are quite cooperative."One of the
volunteers at the polling centre of Prabhat Higher Secondary School, Tyagal, Lalitpur, said no untoward incident happened and polling was
conducted smoothly."People are well aware of their adult franchise
They stood in line and followed all rules and regulations," the volunteer said.An 18-year-old voter said he was very happy
"I have always waited for this day to come
I was quite frustrated with the work of the local government and afraid to question them, but now I have cast my vote and will raise
questions if there is any misconduct
I think everyone should cast their vote, so they can question local representatives later," he shared.Jiban Magar, a student, opined that
the Election Commission should use alternative ways, so everyone could cast their vote from wherever they were
He said, "I am staying in Lalitpur for my studies and exams.So, I wanted to cast my vote from here but due to EC rules, I had to go home to
vote.Due to election all the buses were crammed and I was unable to go to my village."A version of this article appears in the print on May
14, 2022, of The Himalayan Times.
This article first appeared/also appeared in https://thehimalayantimes.com