Mixed reactions over municipal elections

The Election Working Group (EWG), an alliance of 28 civil society organisations, yesterday said the municipality polls could not be called "questionable" event though some incidents of irregularities and violence took place during the vote Wednesday.

It gave the reaction at a press conference at the Jatiya Press Club yesterday.

However, the Parbatya Chattagram Jana Samhati Samiti (PCJSS) rejected the election results and declared a blockade of roads and waterways across Rangamati district Sunday.

In a statement, PCJSS said yesterday that the ruling party activists drove away all the poling agents of Dr Gangacharan Chakma, PCJSS's mayor aspirant, from polling centres and started stuffing the ballot boxes, but the law enforcers did not take any action.

Meanwhile, the Communist Party of Bangladesh (CPB) said in another statement that the election results did not reflect the people's verdict. It also added that the commission did not take any visible, strong measure to stop vote rigging.

In its election monitoring report, rights body Brotee said all parties could not take part in the election equally; ruling party activists drove away poling agents of opposition candidates.Brotee conducted election monitoring in 24 municipalities in seven divisions. It said out of 240 centres, there was no information regarding violence in 225 polling centres. As per the report, the Election Commission took instant measures at only four centres out of the 15 centres where violence took place during the election.