Bangladesh
Supreme Court Election Voting on first day of Supreme Court elections ends amid commotion
Dhaka, March 16: The first day of voting for the Supreme Court Bar Association elections has been completed amid a day-long ruckus, chases, police lathi charge, vandalism, and chanting slogans. Voting started at 12 noon on Wednesday and continued till 5 pm.
Although pro-Awami lawyers exercised their right to vote in the election, pro-BNP lawyers refrained from voting. Voting process starts from noon. Khan Mohammad Shamim Aziz, joint convener of the white panel election management committee supported by Awami League, said that 2217 people have exercised their right to vote till afternoon.
A dispute between Awami League and BNP-backed lawyers over the election management committee led to a ruckus in the morning. Voting could not be started at the scheduled time of 10 am due to commotion. Voting started about two hours after the scheduled time.
Pro-BNP lawyers took a stand at the polling station from 10:15 am. They started raising slogans demanding the formation of a new election management committee. At around 11:30 am, the police entered and evicted the pro-BNP lawyers from the auditorium. After bringing the situation under control, polling started around 12 noon.
Convener of the nominated sub-committee of the Awami League. Voting began under the leadership of Moniruzzaman. Several times when pro-BNP lawyers organized and tried to bring protests towards the polling stations, the police dispersed them by chasing and lathi-charged them.
The president and secretary candidate of the BNP-supported panel held a press briefing around 3 pm. Then around 3:30 pm they marched towards the voting pandal in the association premises. At one point vandalism of pandals, chases, and chases took place. After that pro-Awami lawyers took out a counter-march with slogans.
