EC to compensate polls duty victims
The Election Commission has decided to provide compensation to the families of those killed and suffered injuries while discharging their duties during the violence-hit January 5 parliamentary elections.
The EC will provide maximum Tk 5.5 lakh to each family of those killed while Tk 5,000 to Tk 200,000 to each of the injured.
According to a list prepared by the EC Secretariat, three election officials were killed and 330 other officials and law enforcers were injured during the 10th general election.
Those killed were Abul Bashar, presiding officer of Jhenidah-3, Zobaidul Haque, assistant presiding officer of Thakurgaon-1, and Abdul Wahab of Dinajpur.
“We’ve decided in principle to make an allocation from the commission’s own fund for providing compensation to the families of those killed and those suffered injuries during their duty in the last general election alongside the government’s compensation for the government officials,” Election Commissioner Shah Nawaz told journalists.
The commission will provide the compensation for both the government officials and non-government officials, he added.
“We’ve also requested different ministries concerned, including the education and health ministries, to provide additional services and facilities to the victims and their families,” Shah Nawaz added.
On January 5, the general election experienced widespread violence that marred voting in 597 polling stations out of over 18,000 in the 147 constituencies.
It was the worst violence-hit election in the country’s recent polls history as 23-24 people were killed and many others injured in various parts of the country during the voting.
Comments