Kathmandu, June 5
The Supreme Court has begun the hearing on a writ filed against the Election Commission’s decision to redo the voting in ward 19 of Bharatpur Metropolitan City of Chitwan district.
The CPN-UML ward member candidate Gunjaman BK and advocate Tulsiram Pandey, who happens to be a voter from the same ward, had filed the writ demanding that the Commission’s decision be annulled and the halted counting be resumed by declaring torn 90 ballot papers as invalid.
Senior advocate Shambhu Thapa and advocates Tikaram Bhattarai and Govinda Bandi among others will present their statements on behalf of the plaintiffs.
A single bench of Justice Cholendra Shamsher Rana is hearing the case.
It is expected that the court either will issue an interim order staying the decision or will summon the defendants for the next hearing.
The Election Commission on Saturday had decided to redo the poll in Bharatpur after some Maoist cadres reportedly torn ballot papers while the vote counting was underway last week.
The ruling Nepali Congress and the CPN-Maoist Centre, which had formed an election alliance, had demanded the revoting whereas the main opposition UML was in favour of resuming the vote counting delcaring the torn ballot papers invalid.
The NC-MC candidate Renu Dahal was lagging behind UML’s Devi Gyawali by few hundred votes in the mayoral race while the counting was halted after the incident.
