CHITWAN, March 5: A polling staff member has been arrested in Madi Municipality of Chitwan for allegedly influencing voters to cast their votes for the ‘bell’ election symbol of the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP).
The arrested individual has been identified as Buddhisagar Paudel, an office assistant deployed at the Madi Secondary School polling station. Security personnel detained him after he was found urging people standing in the voting queue to vote for the ‘bell’ symbol.
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Chief District Officer of Chitwan, Ganesh Aryal, confirmed that Paudel attempted to influence voters in violation of the election code of conduct.
“He was taken into custody after he was found telling voters in the queue to vote for a particular election symbol,” Aryal said.
Security personnel also found that Paudel had openly campaigned in favor of the RSP at the polling station.
Meanwhile, Chitwan police also arrested two other individuals on charges of engaging in anti-election activities. The two, identified as cadres of CPN (Bahumat), were detained while staging a protest with pamphlets calling for an election boycott in front of Narayani Namuna Secondary School in Bharatpur.
The District Administration Office, Chitwan, said voting is proceeding peacefully in the district, with 33 percent voter turnout recorded so far.
