Jhalanath Khanal, former Prime Minister and candidate for the House of Representatives (HoR) election from the CPN (Unified Socialist), has charged vote manipulation in his area.
Khanal has called for re-election in Illam seat number one, alleging vote manipulation.
Khanal told the reporters on Saturday, “Electoral fraud has occurred.” The documents show that 2,424 ballots were cast, yet 2,690 ballot papers were discovered in the vote counts. “A total of 266 additional ballot papers were discovered.” He has also stated that those ballot papers should not be recognized under the Election Act, questioning why more ballot papers were dropped than the stated ones.
So far, CPN (UML) candidate Mahesh Basnet from Illam-1 has received 18,542 votes, 2,455 more than former PM Khanal. Khanal, the CPN (Unified Socialist) candidate, has received 16,087 votes thus far.
In the constituency, 17,259 votes out of a total of 59,906 have yet to be counted. Khanal, on the other hand, has called for reelection, claiming election fraud.