11 police officers suspended
The Election Commission on Wednesday decided to file cases against 65 chairman candidates, mostly nominated by the ruling Awami League, and other people involved in irregularities as the commission suspended polls at 65 centres for reported anomalies on Tuesday.
The first phase union parished elections at 712 unions were held on Tuesday, when violence, intimidation, stuffing of ballot box and capture of polling stations were reported at most of the polling centres.
The highest number of irregularities took place at 14 centres in five upazilas of Satkhira, the commission secretary M Sirajul Islam told reporters at his office.
He said that the commission asked the returning officers concerned to file cases against 14 chairmen candidates and other people involved while the commission asked the authorities concerned to suspend 11 police officers who were assigned to duty at the unions.
The commission also summoned Satkhira superintendent of police and five officers-in-charge of police stations at sadar, Tala, Kalarowa, Shemnagar and Debhata upazila to explain their stance about the situation of the day.
Besides the Satkhira incidents, the commission will file case against people involved in irregularities in 51 other centres, including two each centres in Noakhali, Khulna and Comilla, 10 centres in Pirojpur, one each in Lakshmipur, Brahmanbaria, Cox’s Bazar, Sylhet and Barguna, seven in Bhola, 12 in Patuakhali and 11 in Barisal, EC secretary Sirajul said.
Till Wednesday evening, the EC failed to publish the complete result of the country’s first ever union parished election with party electoral symbol.
Unofficial results of 688 UPs, announced by the returning officers, showed that Awami League chairman candidates won at 540 UPs while Bangladesh Nationalist Party-nominated candidates won at 43 unions while candidates of others including AL and BNP rebel candidates won at 105 unions.
In the first phase, the Election Commission earlier unofficially announced 54 AL-nominated chairman candidates, 179 members and 54 reserve-post women members elected unopposed.
At least 121 chairman aspirants, nominated by the BNP, failed to submit nomination papers allegedly facing obstacles created by AL activists.
Source: New Age
