Re –polling at Bharatpur Metropolitan City’s ward no 19 kicked off this morning under the first phase of local level elections. The voting commenced in six voting centres of the three polling stations at 7 am today, Chief ElectionOfficial, Kavi Prasad Neupane said, quoting RSS.
A total of 3,797 voters are taking part in the polls with the deployment of 36 employees along with voting officials at the centres.
More than a thousand security personnel have been mobilized to maintain security, according to District Security Committee.
Chitwan’s Superintendent of Police (SP) Deepak Thapa said 461 personnel from Nepal Police and 295 from Armed Police Force (APF) have been deployed. The outer ring has been secured by the Nepal Army whereas the inner cordon is being manned by employees of the National Investigation Department (NID).
The points of entry into the ward were sealed off from 12 midnight. Chief District Officer (CDO) Narayan Prasad Bhatta ruled out any problems as the security force able to provide security to the entire district has been concentrated at a single ward.
The ballot papers in the earlier poll were torn during vote count on May 28 in ward no 19 creating disputes among the political parties. The Supreme Court (SC) on Saturday ordered the re-polling at the ward.
According to SP Deepak Thapa of DPO Chitwan, 461 Nepal Police and 295 armed police force has been deployed for the security of the polling center. In outer line, there will be Nepal army giving the security.
From last night, the checkpoints were closed according to Thapa. According to him, in three polling stations, 35 police team led by inspector is mobilized and three escorting team led by DSP has been mobilized.
CDO Narayan Prasad Bhatta said that there has been no security threat as maximum number of security has been mobilized in the area.
As per the result of 27 wards of Bharatpur, mayor candidate Devi Prasad Gyawali from CPN UML has received 40,980 votes and Redu Dahal has received 40,194 votes already. The result from ward number 19 and 20 will decide the winner.