Sagar Biswas :
The Saturday’s third-phase voting to elect ‘chairman’ and ‘member’ candidates in the country’s 614 union parishads was held amid sporadic chases and counter-chases between the supporters of candidates and massive vote rigging in different centres.
One person was killed and several others were injured in a tripartite clash among the supporters of two ‘chairman’ candidates and police centering the vote counting at Bahadurpur Govt Primary School centre of Mathurapur union at Chatmohar upazila in Pabna yesterday evening. The victim was shot dead when police opened fire to tackle the situation. Details of the incident could not be known immediately.
Apart from it, around 100 persons were injured in clashes in different unions during election time.
Earlier, the vote casting started at 8:00am and it continued till 4:00pm. Significantly, the voters started showing less interest in casting their votes after the noon, though the queues of the voters were long enough in the polling booths earlier in the morning.
The unruly activists and supporters of some ruling Awami League-backed candidates were allegedly engaged in ballot stuffing and false voting defying restriction of party high command. They also forcibly occupied several centres in different unions ousting the agents of opponent candidates.
In particular, the situation was extremely deteriorating at Ijjatpur High School centre under Sreepur upazila in Gazipur district where the presiding officer in fear of attack by ruling party men took shelter in other room along with polling agents. The ruling party men sealed ballot papers in favour of their candidates without any interruption for about 30 minutes. Later, BGB and police charged baton to disperse the law breakers.
At least ten persons, including a presiding officer and three police personnel, received bullet injuries when supporters of Awami League-backed candidate Md Shahnewaz attempted to snatch away ballot boxes at Ekkhulia Primary School centre of Sundarpur union under Fatikchhari upazila in Chittagong district at about 2:00pm.
Elections to 24 polling centres in 48 districts have been cancelled.
The situation was also serious at AC Academy High School of Chunata union under Sarail upazial in Brahmman Baria district where ruling party activists sealed on ballot papers free-style at least in five centres. A reporter and a cameraperson of a private television channel were beaten severely when they tried to take footage of the incident. Following the occurrence, voting was stopped from 9:20am to 10:40am.
In fact, the scenario was all the same in several centres of different districts, including Manikganj, Noakhali, Chandpur, Laxmipur, Comilla, Jamalpur, Sherpur and Natore where ruling party men apparently unleashed a reign of terror to grab votes in favour of their selected candidates.
In this backdrop, raising allegation of massive vote rigging and electoral misconduct by the ruling party activists, candidates of Bangladesh Nationalist Party [BNP] announced to boycott the polls in several unions. About 28 candidates of BNP and other parties have withdrawn themselves from the race at that time.
The Election Commission [EC] also expressed severe dissatisfaction over the unlawful activities of ruling party men, especially about the ballot stuffing, although the incidents of violence were relatively comparatively fewer yesterday.
The Commission openly criticised the role of the ruling party activists when the complaints of vote rigging, ballot stuffing and other misconduct started coming to EC just within two/three hours of the vote casting.
The EC also reportedly expressed surprise while the directive of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was ignored by her party men. Chief Election Commissioner [CEC] Kazi Rakibuddin Ahmed came to his Sher-e-Bangla Nagar office within a few minutes after the vote began. Four Commissioners and Secretary also reached there after some time. Later, they sat in a meeting at the room of CEC.
Requesting not to be named, an Election Commissioner said that they hoped the electoral scenario in the third phase would be “much better” than first and second phases after PM’s instruction.
“After getting assurance from ruling party high-ups, we had expected that the incidents of ballot stuffing, ballot snatching and clashes will be less in the third phase. We also hoped that the ruling party leaders and activists will not take part in unlawful activities. But the real scenario is seen reversed. They are making continuous trouble,” the Commission said.
Expressing satisfaction, the CEC Kazi Rakibuddin Ahmed, however, told the media that the overall polls was “peaceful” than the previous two phases.
According to EC, about 1,487 candidates of 14 political parties and 1,185 independent candidates took part in the third phase UP polls yesterday.
Of them, the number of Awami League-backed candidates was 617, BNP 536, Jatiya Party 167, JASAD 26, Workers Party 12, Islamic Andolan Bangladesh 92, Jamiyate Ulamaye Islam 10, Bangladesh Communist Party five, Islami Front Bangladesh three, JP three, Khelafat Majlish two, Bikolpa Dhara three, BASAD one and others four.
Meanwhile, the BNP yesterday alleged that a ‘secret deal’ has been inked between the EC and government about holing the UP election.
