Re-Election in Bharatpur Metropolis on Aug 4

Reelection in Ward No 19 of Bharatpur Metropolitan City will be held on August 4. An all-party meeting convened on Tuesday by Chief Returning Officer of Chitwan Kavi Raj Neupane took the decision, Chairman of CPN-UML in Chitwan Krishna Bhakta Pokharel told Setopati.

The Election Commission on Monday had directed Neupane to announce the date for reelection in Bharatpur-19 on the basis of the Supreme Court (SC) verdict on Sunday. The Apex Court on Sunday had endorsed the Election Commission decision to conduct reelection in Bharatpur-19.  

A joint bench of Om Kumar Mishra and Purushottam Bhandari, after hearing the writ petition filed by Gunja Man BK and two others on behalf of CPN-UML, had instructed the government to hold reelection soon.

Vote counting in Bharatpur has been stopped after CPN (Maoist Center) cadres on May 29 tore ballots after the joint mayoral candidate of Maoist Center and Nepali Congress (NC) Renu Dahal looked set to lose to CPN-UML's Devi Gyawali.

A meeting of the Election Commission on June 3 had taken a decision to hold reelection in Bharatpur-19. The SC on June 5 had stayed the EC's decision to conduct reelection in Bharatpur Metropolis-19.  A single bench of Justice Cholendra SJB Rana hearing the writ petition filed by CPN-UML against the decision had ordered the commission to maintain status quo, and summoned the commission and plaintiffs for discussion on June 11 to decide if an interim order should be issued or not.

The three-member committee formed by the commission under Deputy Attorney General Gita Prasad Timalsina to probe the Bharatpur incident had later found that 90 ballots were torn.

Tagged: Bharatpur 6, Chitwan 11, Local Elections 2074 1