The Gazipur City Corporation (GCC) elections were marked by enthusiastic participation of the voters without any incident of violence or clashes, who exercised their franchise braving scorching heat to elect a mayor, ward commissioners and women commissioners, says election observer FEMA. In its interim report, FEMA also observed that at some polling stations the polling officials were seen to have stamped and signed the reverse side of ballot papers thus validating them well in advance.
“The reverse side of the ballot paper should be stamped and signed only before handing out the ballot paper to the voter, not in advance.”
Though a local government election, the GCC polls assumed sharp partisan dimensions spearheaded by the ruling Awami League (AL) and opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) backed by their 14- and 18-party alliances, it said.
The two leading Mayoral contenders are Ajmatullah Khan from AL and MA Mannan from BNP.
The selection of presiding officers by the Election Commission for the 392 polling stations generated controversy.
Both AL and BNP raised questions about the neutrality of some presiding officers based on their past political affiliations. This controversy gave a rise to doubts that the polls may be manipulated though the presiding officers FEMA observers met generally conducted themselves professionally during the voting process.
According to FEMA observation, the voter turnout was high. FEMA observers during their visit to polling stations saw long queues of waiting voters at the polling stations though voting was slow as the vote involved three different ballot papers for mayor, councillor and reserved women seats.
Supporters of different candidates set up election camps near polling stations, and activists were seen campaigning near polling stations.
Required election materials were available at the polling stations but the quality of the ballot paper was so thin that the polling officers had to tear the ballot from the stub very carefully lest it tore.
The indelible ink had dried up and those did not work well in several polling stations. The polling officials dipped it in the stamp pad and used it which no longer remained indelible.
FEMA observed the GCC polls by deploying six mobile teams comprising eight observers from its central leadership and another 20 from its Gazipur district chapter to observe the voting process.
The teams visited 68 polling stations spending about an hour at each polling station. FEMA observation team was led by its Secretary General Tarikul Ghani and included Munira Khan, President, Advocate Salma Ali and AKM Shamshuddin, Vice Presidents, Joint Secretary General SH Khan Helu, Executive Committee member Nazma Choudhury, Gazipur district president Dr Eunus and other district committee members.
-With The Independent input
