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The tortoise-paced vote-counting following the May 13 local elections is a farce. With better preparation, the Election Commission could easily have arranged for more counting stations and personnel to tally votes in big cities like Kathmandu and Bharatpur. Surely the commission officials understand that prompt results are among the salient features of free and fair elections. The longer the results take, the greater the suspicions of foul play. And why keep counting votes for up to a month when you could literally do it in minutes? 

To its credit, the Election Commission has repeatedly tried to phase-in electronic voting. During the 2008 Constituent Assembly election, the commission had piloted electronic voting in some booths of Kathmandu constituency number 1. Both local and international poll observers had deemed the pilot a success and encouraged wider adoption of electronic voting. Yet Nepal to this day continues to exclusively rely on paper. The major political parties are apparently unconvinced that the machines cannot be tampered with. But experiences from around the world suggest paper voting is more amenable to tampering and fraud—by a magnitude—compared to electronic voting. If India, with its wretched history of electoral violence and rigging, now has no qualms about embracing technology to make its voting system quick and transparent, there is no reason Nepal should not adopt it too. 

Twenty or more days to count less than 200,000 votes (in Kathmandu, for instance) is way too much. The voters are being made to continuously check updates to see how their candidate of choice is faring—as if they have nothing better to do. Being so inconvenienced, they might be discouraged from voting next time. Perhaps it is too late to adopt a full-fledged electronic voting for upcoming provincial and federal elections. But as the commission has clarified, there is still room to employ electronic voting in these elections, at least in places with relatively high voter education. We could not do it soon enough. Increasingly adept at using apps and appliances, Nepalis, with a bit of education, are more than capable of exercising their franchise electronically.

Nepal reported six new Covid-19 cases on Wednesday.

According to the Ministry of Health and Population, 2, 856 swab samples were tested in the RT-PCR method, of which six returned positive. Likewise, 617 people underwent antigen tests, of which no one were tested positive.

The Ministry said that no one died of virus in the last 24 hours. The Ministry said that eight infected people recovered from the disease.

As of today, there are 147 active cases in the country.

Coming to the help of its neighbours, India will export 1.7 lakh tonnes of urea and Diammonium Phosphate during this year to Nepal and will also supply 65,000 tonnes of urea to Sri Lanka under the existing $1 billion Indian line of credit, Times of India reported.

While the supply of urea to Sri Lanka comes at a time when the country is facing a huge economic crisis officials said the export of fertilisers to Nepal is also a strategic move to keep Kathmandu from seeking help from China in meeting its domestic requirement.

Sources said India will export 1.2 lakh tonnes of urea and 50, 000 tonnes of DAP to Nepal. Similarly, another 5,300 tonnes of DAP will be exported to Bhutan. Sri Lanka would be the second country to get urea from India after Nepal in spite of a ban on the export of the chemical fertiliser, according to Time of India.

TOI has learnt that the export of urea and DAP to Nepal wil be as per the MOU (agreement) signed between the two countries. Sources for the demand of fertilizers has gone up in Nepal after the Indian enforcement agencies cracked down on people who were involved in smuggling of urea. In the past 2-3 months, around 300 FIRs have been registered against smugglers in Uttar Pradesh alone and another 50-60 FIRs have been registered in Bihar.

Ahead of an US official visit to Nepal, Chinese Ambassador to Nepal Hou Yanqi has paid a courtesy call on Home Minister Bal Krishna Khand on Wednesday.

During the meeting, the duo discussed bilateral and mutual relations of the two countries.

On the occasion, she thanked Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba through Home Minister Khand on successfully holding the local level elections.

The Ambassador said that she also visited many polling stations on the voting day and was happy to see people taking part in the elections.

In response, Minister Khand said that the government has now started preparations for formulating budget for the new fiscal year.

Under Secretary for Civilian Security, Democracy and Human Rights and US Special Coordinator for Tibetan Issues Uzra Zeya is set to visit  Nepal from May 17 – 22 to deepen cooperation on human rights and democratic governance goals, and to advance humanitarian priorities.

CPN (Maoist Centre) mayoral candidate Renu Dahal is leading by 1, 991 votes in Bharatpur Metropolitan City.

Out of 30, 140 votes counted so far, Dahal garnered 11, 046 votes while CPN-UML's Bijay Subedi secured 9, 056 votes.

Similarly, independent candidate Jagannath Paudel received 4, 942 votes.

Likewise, deputy mayoral candidate Chitrasen Adhikari obtained 13, 204 votes and Himala Gurung of Rastriya Prajatantra Party is in the second place.

Sambhu Sah of the CPN (Unified Socialist) has been elected as the mayor of Gaur Municipality, Rautahat.

Sah garnered 7, 052 votes while his closest contender Ajay Gupta of the Democratic Socialist Party secured 3, 707 votes.

Similarly, Sail Kumari Shah has been elected as the deputy mayor.

A jeep carrying Nepali Congress district president met with an accident in Soru Rural Municipality-6, Mugu.

Three persons including Nepali Congress Mugu district President Ain Bahadur Shahi were injured in the incident.

Chief District Officer Rom Bahadur Mahat said that the jeep (Lu 1 Pa 1772) was heading towards Sorukot from Gamgadhi Bazaar, the district headquarters, when the incident took place.

Those, who sustained minor injuries, are undergoing treatment in Sorukot while preparations are being made to send Shahi and others critically injured in the incident to Nepalgunj for treatment.

Binod Regmi of CPN-UML has been elected as the mayor of Kalika Municipality in Chitwan.

He defeated Shiva Ram KC of Nepali Congress by 143 votes.

Regmi garnered 10, 714 votes while KC received 10, 571 votes. 

Similarly, Bimala Lama of UML has been elected as deputy mayor.

She defeated Sabita Lama of CPN (Maoist Centre) by 761 votes.

Bimala secured 10, 449 votes while Sabita got 9, 688 votes.