The Supreme Court on Sunday ordered re-election at Bharatpur Metropolitan-19, where the vote count was disrupted since May 28 after CPN (Maoist Centre) cadres allegedly torn 90 ballot papers.

A division bench of Supreme Court justices Om Prakash Mishra and Puroshottam Bhandari upheld the earlier Election Commission decision to conduct re-election in the Bharatpur Metropolitan City-19.

The EC on June 3 had decided to conduct re-election at Ward 19 of Bharatpur Metropolitan City based on a report prepared by a probe team comprising of Office of the Chief Election Officer, Chitwan District Election Office and representatives of Election Commission.

The very next day on June 4, a writ petition was filed at the apex court by Gunja Man BK, a ward member candidate for Bharatpur-19, and Tulsiram Pandey, an advocate, against the EC decision to conduct re-election, responding to which the SC had stayed the EC decision on June 5.

Earlier, the court had failed to hear the case for four times despite including it in the daily cause list.

CPN-UML mayoral candidate Devi Prasad Gywali was leading the race against CPN-Maoist Centre Renu Dahal, the daughter of former Prime Minister Maoist Centre Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal when the incident occurred.