Chief Election Commissioner Kazi Rakibuddin Ahmad on Tuesday said there is no relation between the current killings in the ongoing countrywide violence and the election. “There’s no relation between these (killings) and the election. Such incidents also took place before the announcement of the election schedule. It’s a matter of law and order. The law enforcers will take action against these and will respond regarding this,” he told reporters. The CEC came up with the remark while leaving his Election Commission Secretariat office at 7:40pm replying to a query if the commission is responsible for killings taken place in the current violence. In reply to another query as to how candidates withdraw their candidature even after allocation of election symbol, Rakibuddin said the returning officers did their job following the law. “If anyone is aggrieved about it, he can go to the court. But he will have to prove how the laws were violated,” he suggested. Turning to his Tuesday’s meeting with a team of the Election Working Group, the EC boss said they discussed the observation during the election. “The team wanted to deploy their stationary observers in each polling centre instead of mobile ones. But it’s not applicable as the polling booths can’t accommodate huge number of people. The room of the polling centres is tiny in many cases,” he added. Rakibuddin, however, said the team members did not tell the commission that there is absence of the election-friendly environment. Earlier, a EWG team sat in a parley with the CEC at latter’s office at the EC secretariat at 3pm. – UNB
