There are indications that the counting of votes in Kathmandu Metropolitan City will be delayed. Although the counting of votes started at 10 am today, only about 100 votes have been counted till 12 noon.
Initially, the counting was done from only two places. According to the Office of the Returning Officer, preparations have been made to start counting from other places simultaneously by increasing the number of party representatives.
Prem Kumar Shrestha, an official of the Election Office, said that the counting of votes has been started as a small number of tests to prevent disputes. The office is preparing to conduct simultaneous counting from six to seven places.
Counting has been started from Ward No. 1 above and from Ward No. 32 below. Thus, counting of votes in ward nos. 1 and 32 are in progress. According to preliminary details, an independent candidate for Kathmandu metropolis Balendra Shah has taken the lead so far.
Shah got 22 votes while Sirjana Singh of Nepali Congress got 18 votes and Keshav Sthapit of CPN (UML) got 13 votes.
There were 55 candidates including 35 independents for the post of Kathmandu Metropolitan Chief. As the number of candidates has increased, the counting has been delayed. Dalit women members from wards 18, 22, 23, and 27 have already been elected unopposed.
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