Election Working Group (EWG), an alliance of election observing bodies, has found irregularities in 46.5 percent of the polling centres during the Gazipur City Corporation (GCC) elections.
The EWG came up with its observations at a press conference titled ‘Preliminary Statement on Gazipur City Corporation Election’ at the Jatiya Press Club on Thursday.
It said a total of 159 incidents of violation of the election code of conduct in around 129 polling among 425 polling stations were observed on the polling day.
The EWG members monitored the preparation and opening of the polling stations, voting operations and procedures, the environment inside the polling stations and closing and the counting of ballots.
Trained observers intensively joined the monitoring process after selecting the polling stations randomly from the Election Commission gazette.
While presenting the keynote paper, EWG Director Dr Md Abdul Alam said they witnessed irregularities in at least 60 polling stations among those they have monitored.
They witnessed specific incidents of election violations like ballot stuffing, campaigning within 400 yards of some polling stations, presence of unauthorised persons inside the stations and preventing voters from castings votes, he added.
He further said, “Polling agents were not allowed to enter some centres, while the agents were driven out form some stations. Our teams also observed violence inside and outside some polling booths as well as officials of different law enforcement agencies were seen campaigning for a certain candidate.”
In its statement, the watchdog group mentioned, “In one polling station in ward No 32 EWG, it was observed that approximately five voters were not given the mayoral ballot paper around 11 am. At the same time, BNP polling agents were also kicked out of the station. At the same station, an EWG observer viewed ballot stuffing around 1pm and saw police taking lunch provided by a mayoral candidate.”
They also brought up three more incidents as examples of violation of election rules.
The group observed the presence of Awami League polling agents at 96.9 percent of the centers while BNP polling agents in 81.4 percent.
According to them, the Gazipur election was not as fairer as the one held in Rangpur City Corporation.
The election watchdog also said the EC needs to be more active to overcome the faults in the upcoming national election.
The EWG also said its full report along with the recommendations will be submitted to the Election Commission.
Prof Dr Nazmul Ahsan Kalimullah, Md Abdul Awal and Md Harun-or-Rasid and some other members of the body were present at the press conference.
