Chitwan, August 4
Voting is underway peacefully in Ward 19 of Bharatpur Metropolitan City in Chitwan district on Friday.
As of 1 pm, around 56 per cent votes have been cast, according to election officials. Six voting centres of six stations will be open till 5 pm, the Election Commission says.
Total 3,797 voters are eligible to cast their votes in the ward.
Meanwhile, Returning Officer Ishwari Prasad Paudyal says vote counting will begin today itself if political parties consent to do so.
The Supreme Court on Sunday had ordered the Election Commission to redo polling in the ward after 90 ballot papers had been torn from the ward earlier.
The city had held local level elections on May 14 and vote counting was underway while some Maoist cadres reportedly torn 90 ballot papers in May last week. The vote counting had been halted since then.
After some days, the Election Commission had decided to redo voting in ward 19, from where the ballot papers had been torn. However, the UML had objected to the decision and made two of its supporters file a writ against the decision at the Supreme Court.
The Court, then, had stayed the decision.
But, the Court had upheld the Commission’s decision on Sunday and quashed the writ.
CPN-UML’s Devi Gyawali and CPN-Maoist Centre’s Renu Dahal are contesting for the position of mayor in the city.
