Policy-level, structural and procedural vote rigging: UCPN (Maoist) probe panel

Kathmandu: The probe panel formed by the UCPN (Maoist) to look into the alleged vote rigging in the CA polls has made its report public. Concluding that the policy-level, structural and procedural frauds were done to defeat the party, UCPN (Maoist) leader Barshaman Pun, coordinator of the probe panel, demanded a high level probe committee be formed from the government to probe into the vote rigging in the November 19 polls. Pun claimed that there was a massive rigging while transporting the ballot boxes from the polling centers, storing the ballot boxes and taking the ballot boxes to the vote counting stations.
Likewise, the panel has concluded that policy-level fraud was made through the 10-point circular issued by the Election Commission (EC) after the beginning of the vote-counts and amendment to its earlier decision regarding the use of ballot boxes in the first-past-the-post and proportional electoral systems and use of different colors in the signatures by the polling officers against the earlier directive of using only the black-inked pens.
Earlier, the EC had issued a directive to use smaller ballot boxes for the first-past-the-post electoral system while a bigger one for the proportional representative (PR) electoral system.
Prohibiting the representatives of political parties and candidates while transporting and storing ballot boxes and giving responsibility to the security body that was stationed in the third circle of the polling centers to carry the ballot boxes from the polling centers to the stores have contributed to rigging, the party said.
Using Nepal Army barracks to store the ballot boxes and use of unusually long routes and delayed transportation of the ballot boxes to the district election offices were also the parts of the policy-level and structural fraud, the report has stated.