Satkania UZ polls today

All preparations for today’s election to Satkania Upazila Parishad are complete, with three candidates from running for the chairman post.

MA Motaleb, president of Satkania upazila unit of Awami league (AL), and Abdul Gaffar Chowdhury, former joint secretary general of BNP’s Chattogram south district unit, are contesting for the chairman post with their party tickets. 

The third candidate for the post is running independently.

Apart from chairman candidates, a total of six male vice chairman candidates and two female vice chairman candidates are vying in the polls in the upazila where the number of total voters is 2,83,380. Electronic voting machines will be used at all polling stations in the election.

Meanwhile, Gaffar, the BNP-nominated candidate for chairman post, speculated that the election would not be held in a free and fair manner.

“The ruling party [men] tore down my posters in different areas... I can’t hold street rallies due to obstructions created by the ruling party men... the administration is in favour of the ruling party candidate,” he said, claiming that his vehicle was vandalised and he was forced to leave an area during campaigning.

“I lodged a number of written complaints with the returning officer,” but no action was taken, he also said.

The AL-nominated candidate MA Motaleb, however, refuted all the accusations made by Gaffar.