EC drive to reduce invalid votes

BANKE, NOV 09 - The Election Commission has been imparting special electoral education and organising mock polls in Banke district in order to reduce invalid votes .

The voter education programme includes lessons for voters on the ways to cast valid votes and training for officials deployed to polling stations.

"We have started an electoral education programme for additional two weeks in places that saw a high percentage of invalid votes in the previous Constituent Assembly election. We have deployed personnel to villages to teach people ways to cast votes properly," said Lok Bahadur Rana, chief of the District Election Office.

He said that the lack of idea to put the Swastika seal on ballots and the absence of election officer's signature on them are the main factors that invalidate votes.

Around 20 percent votes (8,557) were invalid in the district last CA election . Of them, according to the District Election Office, 6.37 percent votes (2,646) were invalid in Banke Constituency-2, which is predominantly a Madhesi community, 5.33 percent (2,157) in Constituency-3, 4.31 percent (2,038) in Constituency-1 and 3.81 percent (1,716) in Constituency-4.

Around six percent votes were invalid in the first-past-the-post category and 3.66 percent under the proportional representation system.