Sagar Biswas :
The Election Commission [EC] has taken preparations to hold fifth phase of UP election in the country’s 729 Unions apparently without taking additional security measures, though violence and irregularities were common scenarios in the previous phases.
Several candidates have lodged complaints with the EC mentioning the issue of violence and other electoral misconduct allegedly committed by the ruling party activists. But the EC has not taken any visible step against the accused persons.
Election officials, however, said that it will be a ‘big challenge’ for them to conduct free, fair and violence-free polls in the fifth phase keeping the fatal incident zero level. In this regard, the EC would try to implement the electoral law based on the experience of previous four phases, the officials said. “We’ve asked the law enforcement agencies to take stringent measures to check causalities during election in the fifth phase. We’re arranging the polls in phases to check violence and irregularities. So, we hope the law enforcement agencies will take effective steps to hold peaceful and violence free election in the fifth and sixth phases,” Kazi Rakibuddin Ahmed, Chief Election Commissioner said.
According to reports received from different UPs, at least ten persons so far had been killed in the last few days centering the campaign of the fifth phase polls. With the deaths, the number total causalities stood at 95 since the first phase polls began on March 22. The number of injured is over 4,000, the sources said.
Over two dozens of clashes were reported in six districts — Munshiganj, Natore, Comilla, Habiganj, Pirojpur and Faridpur in the last 48 hours till Thursday afternoon where around 50 persons were injured in the gun battles.
Interestingly, a number of 42 ‘chairman’ candidates of ruling Awami League have already won in the fifth phase election without participating in the voting. With the winning of 45, a total of 194 ruling party-backed ‘chairman’ contenders have won in the five phases of election without contest. Of them, 54 won in first, 34 in second, 29 in third and 35 in fourth phases.
In the violence-torn elections, the Awami League-backed candidates won in around 1,836 UPs while BNP witnessed victory in 243 UPs in the previous four phases. Besides, the voters turn out were 74%, 78%, 76% and 77% in the first, second, third and fourth phases respectively.
The sixth and final phase elections would he held on June 4 in 727 unions. With the holding of the final stage voting, the EC will complete election in 4,571 UPs — the lowest tier of Local Government Administration.
The electoral campaign ended at midnight on Thursday and the EC has taken preparations to send around two crore of ballot papers and other materials to each and every polling centre by Friday night.
To check fake vote, the EC has printed three types of ballot papers. Of them, white colour ballot paper for ‘chairman’ candidates, pink for reserved posts and ‘member’ candidates will get green ballot papers.
The schedule for the fifth phase election in the 733 unions was announced on April 21 last. Later, five UPs were cancelled from the list following various legal obstacles.
Meanwhile, the Sushashoner Jonno Nagorik [SUJAN], a platform fights for civil rights, has claimed that the ongoing UP elections have set a record in casualties leaving at least 101 people dead and over 8,000 injured in clashes.
Demanding credible elections, SUJAN Secretary Badiul Alam Majumder, on Thursday said, “The ongoing UP polls are marked by irregularities and ‘nomination trade’, which are not acceptable.
About 80 people were killed in the UP elections in 1988, while 31 in 1997, 23 in 2003 and 10 in 2011. But, at least 101 people were killed in election violence taken place till fourth phase of the staggered UP polls.
“The trend of being elected unopposed will weaken the election system further…it’ll be suicidal for the nation. If the EC is reformed, the law enforcers will play their respective roles and it will be possible to hold free elections,” the SUJAN Secretary said.
