KATHMANDU, JUL 06 – The CPN-UML faction led by Madhav Kumar Nepal has rejected the party’s decision to use Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) for the Central Committee (CC) election.

The Nepal faction has expressed a serious reservation over the effort of the organising committee of the ongoing ninth UML National Congress to use the EVMs for election.

Organising a separate press meet on Saturday, UML politburo member, Raghuji Pant, said that a large section of the party representatives are skeptical about the use of EVMs, and demanded the use of paper ballot for the election.

Pant, a close aide to Nepal, claimed that there were technical problems with the EVMs  and cannot generate the right results. “Our technical team has found various errors in those machines which has been has reported to the central committee,” he said.

Pant also claiming that elections conducted through EVMs have become controversial around the world.

Leaders close to former Nepal have also been raising questions over the authentication of the digital identity cards of the convention representatives, claiming that the cards were without the signature of the office bearers. “Can technical team authenticate our card?” asked Ram Kumari Jhankri, youth leader close to Nepal. “The party must issue another card before the election.”

The Oli faction, however, has dismissed the claim made by the rival faction.

Pradeep Gyawali, a leader close to Oli, claimed that the EVMs were fully tested and there was no need to doubt their functionality. He said the party’s Central Committee and the Standing Committee had taken unanimous decision to use the EVMs.

Gyawali also claimed that it will take more than two days just for the election procedures if EVMs are not used.

UML has already prepared 60 EVMs for election and 10 for the mock election that were prepared by the engineers duo Ram Rimal and Laxman Rimal. Over 500 candidates are expected to file their candidacy for the 149-member Central Committee.

-BY THE KATHMANDU POST