Chattogram Bureau :
Two people were killed and many others received injuries in sporadic clashes between supporters and activists of rival parties in the Chattogram City Corporation (CCC) elections on Wednesday.
BNP mayoral candidate Shahadat Hossain alleged that his polling agents were ousted from the polling stations and ruling Awami League activists had been engaged in snatching votes and capturing polling centres during the election while AL candidate Rezaul Karim Chowdhury claimed that BNP’s allegations were baseless and it was a conspiracy to make the election controversial.
Islami Andolan Bangladesh mayoral candidate Jannatul Islam in a press release at about 3:00pm boycotted the election alleging attack on election centres and barring his agents and voters from entering the polling centres.
Awami League mayoral candidate M Rezaul Karim Chowdhury unofficially won the elections by bagging 1,99,074, votes while his nearest competitor and Bangladesh Nationalist Party candidate Shahadat Hossain bagged 29,749 votes.
Election Commission secretariat senior secretary Md Alamgir, talking to reporters at Nirbachan Bhaban in the capital, however, claimed the election was a ‘good’ one and said that the violence was negligible compared to the elections in other third world countries.
He said that the presence of voters in the election was less than their expectation and they suspended polling in two election centres due to violence while the attackers vandalised electronic voting machines (EVMs).
While visiting several polling centres, our correspondent witnessed that the voters’ presence were very thin though there was a huge presence of leaders and activists of the AL and its front organisations outside the polling centres.
A number of voters alleged that they could not cast their vote for the candidates of their choice as AL activists compelled them to press the EVM voting button in favour of the AL candidates while many others alleged that they were barred from entering the polling centres.
At Ambagan in the city, Alam Mia, 28, son of Sultan Mia of Cumilla district, was shot dead and five others sustained bullet injuries in a clash between the supporters of Awami League-backed councillor candidate of Ambagan ward Mohammad Wasim and Awami League rebel candidate in the morning, said Zahirul Islam, In-charge of Chattogram Medical College and Hospital police outpost.
In Pahartali, Nizam Uddin Munna, 35, a resident of the area was killed in an attack allegedly by his brother over a dispute centring the election.
Quoting local people, Rashedul Haque, Officer-in-Charge of Pahartali police station, said Munna was an activist of Pahartali ward unit Chhatra League and a supporter of Awami League rebel candidate Saber Ahmed while his brother Salauddin Quamrul was the supporter of Awami League backed councillor candidate Nurul Amin.
Alauddin Talukdar, sub-inspector of CMCH police outpost, said that at about at least 30 people were injured in election-related violence in different areas of the city and took treatment at the hospitals.
After casting his vote at the Teachers’ Training College polling centre at Pashchim Bakalia in the city at about 10:00 am, BNP-backed mayoral candidate Shahadat Hossain alleged that his polling agents were ousted from almost all the centres while AL activists had been engaged in robbing people’s votes.
The administration resorted to trickery so that the ruling Awami League candidate could win, also complained some voters.
AL mayoral candidate Rezaul Karim Chowdhury, after casting his vote at about 8:45am at Ekhlasur Rahman Government Primary School in the port city, said that he was 100 per cent optimistic about his win and said that the election was peaceful and voters came to the polling stations spontaneously.
He termed BNP’s allegations baseless and said that BNP was not in a position to appoint agents due to its organisational weakness.
After the election hours, BNP standing committee member and CCC election conducting committee chief Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury, in a press briefing at the party’s Chattogram city office, alleged that the ‘Awami law enforcement agencies’, not the AL, had conducted the election and the main task of ousting BNP’s polling agents were accomplished by the law enforcement agencies.
‘It was not an election. So the question of rejecting the results does not even arise,’ he said.
He alleged that the AL had employed miscreants and captured about 500 polling centres while over 200 BNP leaders and activists were injured in their attacks.
