Voting in 151 centres postponed
Chief Election Commissioner Kazi Rakibuddin Ahmad on Thursday said the second phase election in 115 upazila parishads was peaceful except a few stray incidents.
“Today’s polls have been completed by and large peacefully except a few incidents of violence in some places,” the CEC told a press briefing at the media centre of the Election Commission Secretariat here in the evening.
He said voting at 151 polling stations, including all the 117 polling centres of Noakhali Sadar upazila, was postponed.
Rakibuddin said a total of 216 people were punished on charge of breaching polls codes and they were fined Tk 5.70 lakh.
Asked about the voter turnout, the CEC said they should not make any comment regarding this right now as they are yet to get the complete information.
Replying to a query whether the trend of violence in the second phase was comparatively higher than that in the first phase ones held on February 19, the CEC said, ‘It’s not a matter of comparison…what the actions we’ve taken against violence and irregularities should be considered first.”
Over the BNP’s allegation of massive election irregularities, the CEC said they received huge allegations and are taking actions after investigating into those.
Election Commissioners Abu Hafiz and Shah Nawaz, and EC acting secretary general Sirajul Islam were present at the briefing.
Source: UNB Connect