Kathmandu [Nepal], December 17 (ANI): The election process to elect the new leadership was postponed to Wednesday morning following a technical glitch in the voting machines during the ongoing general convention of KP Sharma Oli’s CPN-UML party.
The election process, which has been postponed more than half a dozen times since Monday, was last scheduled to begin at 7 pm (local time) on Tuesday.
However, nearly an hour after the scheduled time, the process again hit a snag when issues were detected in the electronic system, particularly during the entry of candidates’ names.
Party officials later announced that voting would start after 8 am (local time) on Wednesday, provided the technical problems are resolved.
General secretary candidate Shankar Pokhrel from the KP Oli faction said the decision to postpone the voting was taken to ensure the smooth functioning of the electronic voting machines.
Delegates had already lined up at the venue early on Tuesday in anticipation of polling.
“The election committee had prepared to hold the election from 7 pm (local time) today (Tuesday), but because of the technical glitch, the process could not be initiated,” Pokhrel said.
“Because of the increasing cold, we are not in a condition to wait further for it to get resolved. The election, which was scheduled for today, has now been postponed till tomorrow (Wednesday) morning at 8 am (local time) at this very venue of the closed-door sessions,” he added.
“The election process has been halted till 8 am Wednesday,” Pokhrel announced.
This was not the first delay in the voting schedule.
Organisers had earlier said polling would begin in the afternoon, but technical adjustments and coding issues with the electronic voting machines delayed the process.
The party is using electronic voting to elect its new leadership, with officials saying additional time was required to address repeated glitches before polling could proceed.
As the General Convention had been waiting for the election process to start since early Tuesday, CPN-UML chair KP Sharma Oli arrived at the polling venue of the party’s 11th general convention only after 7 pm on Tuesday.
After filing his candidacy on Monday, Oli remained absent from the convention venue all day and only appeared in the evening.
Upon arriving at the polling venue, Oli was seen chatting on stage with rival chair candidate and senior vice-chair, Ishwar Pokharel.
Leaders Yubaraj Gyawali and Bishnu Paudel were also present on the stage alongside them. (ANI)