JANAKPUR, Sept 20: After years of anticipation and months of excitement, locals of Province 2 finally exercised their voting right on Monday. Apart from some sporadic incidents of violence, the third round of local elections concluded in a peaceful and systematic manner. There was an overwhelming participation of the people who were eagerly waiting to cast their votes and elect their representatives. However, there were some who could not vote in the historic elections.

 Ram Dayal Yadav, who had reached a polling booth of Ganeshman Charnath Municipality-10 of Dhanusha had to return home without voting. According to him, it was heartbreaking to see others voting when he could not do so. He had reached the polling center along with his citizenship but the election officials refused to let him in saying his name was not mentioned in the voter list.

Later, he went there carrying the voter ID card provided to him by the Election Commission but still he was not allowed to vote. Disappointed with the ill treatment of the officials, Yadav vented his anger with the human rights activists present there. Lamenting with Subodh Pyakurel, chairperson of INSEC Nepal, Yadav asked, "I voted in both the elections to the Constituent Assembly from the same polling center with this card but why can't I do it now?”
 
Looking at the citizenship and voter ID card, Pyakurel told the election officials that the mistake was actually committed by EC. He told election officer Tulananda Mandal that it is not right to return an eligible voter without allowing him to exercise his right to vote. "He has furnished the entire documents which prove that he is an eligible voter," he said.

As informed by Mandal, Yadav was not the only such person and there were many people whose names were not mentioned in the voter list and, so, he could not allow only Yadav to vote.
 
Pushpa Jha, District Election Officer of Dhanusha, states that the incident happened as some voters had registered their names in the voter list more than once. Though the election officer of Barmajhiya says many people like Yadav were not allowed to vote due to the negligence of EC. He claims that few people in the district have still not received the new voter ID card. Similar issues were encountered at dozens of polling booths in Dhanusha.

 
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