Vote counting for the vice-president and general secretary posts under the Nepali Congress’ 15th General Convention has been suspended after candidates demanded that figures for all ballots counted so far be entered into the computer system before the tally proceeds. The count, halted about an hour earlier, had yet to resume.

Counting began at around 10pm on Saturday and proceeded slowly through Sunday morning. By then, results for only 1,330 votes had been made public. Candidates sought a complete record of the figures after details of roughly 700 additional votes already counted had not been released.

Election officials have since been entering the figures into the computer system. Jeevan Pariyar, a candidate for vice-president, said it had been agreed that counting would resume only after the process was complete. “It has been agreed that counting will resume only after all the figures have been entered into the computer system. Counting is not underway at the moment,” he said.

Counting for the vice-president and general secretary posts began on Saturday night after the result for the party president was announced. Although counting initially took place at three stations, only one station was operating from Sunday morning.

According to the results made public for 1,330 votes, Chandra Kant Bhandari and Madhu Acharya are leading the race for the two open vice-president positions. Bhandari has secured 679 votes and Acharya 393. They are followed by Govinda Bhattarai with 345, Surendraraj Pandey with 337, Deepak Giri with 264, Dhanraj Gurung with 240 and Chandramohan Yadav with 138 votes. Seven candidates are contesting the two open positions.

In the inclusive category, Binod Kumar Chaudhary is leading with 382 votes. Jeevan Pariyar has received 330, Farmullah Mansoor 190, Sita Gurung 170 and Ranjit Karna 107. Five candidates are competing for the single inclusive vice-president position.

Eight candidates are vying for the two open general secretary positions. Pradeep Paudel is leading with 788 votes, followed by Amar Singh Pun Magar with 478 and Uday Shumsher Rana with 456. Sunil Kumar Sharma has received 325 votes, Gururaj Ghimire 197, Nain Singh Mahar 148, Shankar Tiwari 20 and Santosh Upadhyay 18.

Three candidates are contesting the single women’s general secretary position. Dila Sangraula (Pant) is ahead with 583 votes, followed by Mahalaxmi Upadhyay (Dina) with 557 and Rita Khanal with 153.