Voting has been postponed at the Madhura Basic School polling station in Wangla near Sandhikharka, the district headquarters of Arghakhanchi, following a dispute over ballot papers on Thursday. Re-polling in the station would be held within a few days, the EC said.

The voters vandalised ballot box and tore ballot papers as they found ballot papers without the signature of election officer Surendra Raj Adhikari.

As there were fewer security personnel manning the voting centre, the election officials went into hiding inside a classroom of the school after a large group of people barged into the voting centre and started vandalising polling booths and other arrangements.

Around 500 votes were cast in the voting centre before the voting were suspended. There are 2,044 voters in the centre.

Election officer Adhikari admitted that he provided the ballot papers to the voters without signature. “I made the mistake,” he said, adding that he did such act in a hurry.