Staff Reporter :The second phase of Union Parishad (UP) elections in 644 (UP) will be held today (Thursday) amid fearing violence. The 31 Awami League-backed chairman candidates have already been elected unopposed. The voting will continue from 8:00am to 4:00pm.The Election Commission (EC) has already sent four crore ballot papers for holding polls. The judicial and executive magistrates will do their duties to help ensure fair polls. Election Commissioner Mohammad Shahnewaz hoped that the election would be held in free and fair manner. “We have asked the concerned officials to try their best to make the election credible. We won’t tolerate if the Presiding Officers ‘remain mum’ seeing ballot stuffing or casting of fake votes,” he said. Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB)’s Public Relations Officer Mohsin Reza told the reporters on Wednesday that over 200 platoons of BGB forces had been sent to union parishads. The polls will be held in 644 unions of 47 districts being participated by 16 registered political parties out of a total of 40, the Election Commission officials said.They said that a total of 2,684 candidates are vying for the chairman posts in the second phase of the polls while 31 chairman candidates of ruling Awami League are already elected unopposed.The Commission officials said that they did not find any nomination papers of Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) candidates in 77 unions. But, BNP claimed that their chairman aspirants were not allowed to submit nomination papers by the ruling party men.Chittagong north unit of BNP Convener Aslam Chowdhury said that the party nominated chairman candidates in 30 unions were being harassed by the ruling party men and the law enforcement agencies. He also said that elections would not be held in free and fair manner.Meanwhile, the Superintendent of Police Satkhira, Chowdhury Manjurul Kabir and five Officers-in-Charge of five police stations appeared in the Commission and the EC revoked them for their failure to deal with irregularities committed on the previous night of the first phase of UP elections on March 22.On the other hand, hundreds of people were injured in many districts in a bid to establish supremacy and influence the voters. In the first phase of the Union Parished polls, at least 27 people were killed and 3,500 were injured in a number of violence.
