Fresh polling for Nepal’s Constituent Assembly needed in 98 centres – UN

Nepal’s Election Commission has announced that re-polling following last week’s historic Constituent Assembly election will be required in 98 stations out of some 20,000 across the country, a spokesperson for the United Nations said today.

Marie Okabe told reporters that the re-polling in the 98 stations, covering 21 constituencies and 12 districts, will be completed within a week.

Meanwhile, ballot counting in the 10 April polls is under way in 132 constituencies, mostly focusing on the results for the first-past-the-post ballots.

The UN Mission in Nepal (UNMIN) is providing technical assistance and advice to Nepal’s Election Commission, which is fully responsible for all aspects of the preparation and conduct of the election.

UNMIN district electoral advisers remain in the districts throughout the re-polling and counting process.

In a statement issued after the close of polls last week, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon appealed “to all parties to remain calm while awaiting the results.”

Once elected, the Constituent Assembly will draw up a new constitution for the South Asian nation that emerged from a decade-long civil war that claimed an estimated 13,000 lives until the Government and Maoist rebels signed a peace accord in 2006.