Congress convention: Voting could not be held Thursday, to start 7am Friday

Voting to elect a new Central Working Committee at Nepali Congress's 15th General Convention, which was scheduled for Thursday, has been postponed. The Central Election Committee has set a new time of 7am Friday for the vote.

Voting originally scheduled for 10am was pushed back three times, eventually to 2:30pm, but still could not be held. Officials said the vote was delayed because long candidate lists in many clusters held up the printing of ballot papers, leaving no time to get them signed. Bad weather and technical reasons were also cited.

According to the Election Committee, 200,000 ballot papers have been printed in 23 designs. Committee member-secretary Raju Katuwal said 7,377 convention representatives have arrived. Polling has been arranged at Khula Manch and the National Hall.

With the convention extended by a day, Congress treasurer Umesh Shrestha said the party would cover representatives' lodging and food expenses for the additional day.