Khanal demands for reelection in Ilam

Former Prime Minister and candidate of Ilam constituency no 1 for the House of Representatives (HoR) election from CPN (Unified Socialist) Jhalanath Khanal has been accused of vote rigging in his constituency.

Khanal has called for reelection in Ilam constituency no 1, claiming vote rigging there.

Talking to the media on Saturday, Khanal said, “Electoral fraud has taken place. The documents state 2,424 vote cast but 2,690 ballot papers were found in the vote counts. A total of 266 more ballot papers were found.” He has further stated that those ballot papers should not be recognized as per the Election Act questioning why more ballot papers than the stated ones were dropped.

So far, CPN (UML) candidate Mahesh Basnet from Ilam-1 has bagged 18,542 votes, which is 2,455 votes more than obtained by former PM Khanal. The CPN (Unified Socialist) candidate Khanal has secured 16,087 votes so far.

Of the total 59,906 votes cast, 17,259 votes are left to count in the constituency. However, Khanal has called for reelection claiming election fraud.