EC not responsible for low turnout: CEC

Chief election commissioner KM Nurul Huda on Thursday said the Bangladesh Election Commission (EC) is responsible for creating the voting atmosphere, not for the low turnout.

Instead, he thought the political parties and the candidates are responsible for that.

“The election commission creates the voting atmosphere. It is not assigned to encourage voters to come out of their houses and cast vote. The candidates and political parties should do that,” said the CEC after casting his vote at Uttara’s IES School and College centre in the Dhaka city corporations’ polls.

The election commission has organised the voting for the by-elections to the DNCC mayoral post and election to councillor and reserved councillor posts of the newly added 36 wards, including 18 under the Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) and 18 under the Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC).

The presence of voters is seen very low in the voting centres.

When asked about the almost ‘voterless’ polls by the newsmen, the CEC said you cannot say it ‘voterless.’ It would be ‘presence of voters’ is low.

“Presence of voters will increase in the afternoon. But, overall voters’ presence is low,” he admitted.

The CEC shows two causes behind the low turnout. He observed that the voters are not interested as the tenure of the positions is very short and the oppositions are not contesting the polls.

Asked about oppositions’ boycotting the polls, he said, “It is also responsibility of the political party. The election commission has no responsibility.”