Disposal of polls complaints: HC clears EC of contempt of court

The High Court today exempted the Election Commission from a contempt of court ruling following their offering of unconditional apology.

The HC bench of Justice M Moazzam Husain and Justice Md Badruzzaman passed the order after accepting their apology.

The chief election commissioner, four commissioners and senior asst secretary Md Mizanur Rahman on November 26 appeared before the HC registrar office and sworn an affidavit offering the unconditional apology to the HC for not complying with the court’s order that has asked the EC to dispose of a complaint about anomalies in the elections to char Chabhairab union parishad in Chandpur’s Haimchar upazila.

In April, an aggrieved chairman candidate of the recently-held union parishad (UP) polls filed a writ petition with the HC, as the commission did not dispose of his complaints.

Elections to around 4,000 UPs were held in six phases from March to June this year. The first and second phases, which were held on March 22 and March 31, were marred by irregularities and violence.

Hundreds of complaints were lodged with the EC over poll-time irregularities and violence. The commission was supposed to resolve the complaints. But it neither investigated nor took any action.