Bangladesh
UP Vote No one was killed at polling stations on Thursday's election: EC
Dhaka, November 12: None of those killed in the violence in Thursday's Union Parishad (UP) election died at polling stations, Election Commission (EC) Secretary Md Humayun Kabir Khandaker told reporters after the second phase of Union Parishad elections at the Election Building on Thursday (November 11) evening.
The EC secretary said, "You [media] said six people were killed, that's right. The commission is upset about it. We will never want a citizen of the state to be killed for any reason. None of the six people who died on Thursday died at our polling station. There was violence among the rival candidates who were chasing each other and they were killed."
He said, "We have gathered information from all the 834 Union Parishads where the voting took place. Some of the candidates have also expressed their views to us. We have come to know that the voting had been done in a festive manner."
Humayun Kabir Khandaker said, “There were 8,400 polling stations in 834 UP elections of this phase. We have received reports from the media and the Law Monitoring Center that miscreants tried to snatch the ballot in 10 centers. Our presiding officers stopped voting in those 10 centers. These will be voted on later. If there is no decision on the results of other centers then the vote will be taken later. Overall, it was a good vote."
The schedule for the fourth phase of voting has been made on Wednesday and the commission will meet again for the next phase of voting, the EC secretary said.
Earlier in the day, there were chases and violence in different parts of the country during the second phase of Union Parishad elections. At least six people have been killed in electoral violence. Hundreds were injured.
The dead included three in Narsingdi and one each in Cox's Bazar, Chittagong and Comilla. Voting began at 8:00 am on Thursday and ended at 4:00 pm.
