Editorial
Narsingdi by-election
It could have been peaceful
Since the main opposition party Awami League did not take part in the Narsingdi by-poll, conflict and violence on the election day were the least anticipated turn of events. But what we witnessed instead was much different from what we thought of. Low turn-out, fake voting, intimidation by ruling party candidate supporters -- these are some of the reported allegations that filled the lead stories in newspapers. It was alleged that the ruling party supporters attacked polling agents of other candidates and took control of some centres by driving them away. We just do not understand why they had to resort to this. Were they not sure about their candidate or were they just trying to ensure his victory by means fair and foul?They even allegedly chased and assaulted an independent candidate, who also emerged as the nearest rival of the ruling party candidate. Even the local police used baton in some places to disperse the independent candidate's supporters when they were reportedly going to lodge official complaints of vote rigging. Why and to prove what? This by-election was in the news in a different way when a controversy raged over the nomination of the ruling party candidate. Thanks to internal conflicts in the local BNP, supporters of other hopefuls created anarchy in the township. And now with the allegations of irregularities, some of them pointed by a few monitoring groups, during the election day itself, there is another, albeit a more serious controversy, to take note of. We are simply shocked at the lack of tolerance by the ruling party supporters towards the opponent in a by-election which was not even contested by the main opposition party. They could have easily shown restraint. And especially since the issue of holding free and fair elections is a national concern, the by-poll should have passed off without any incident.
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