With the voting in the third phase Upazila election completed amid a low turnout, the Election Commission says its priority is to hold ‘peaceful voting’.
“Percentage is not a matter. The commission is not concerned over the voter turnout rather holding a peaceful balloting,” its Secretary Helaluddin Ahmed said on Sunday (Mar 24) after polls closed at over 100 Upazilas.
Speaking to the media at the Commission’s headquarters, he said that the low turnout was natural as one of the political alliances boycotted the election.
Asked whether a lower turnout would question the credibility of the elections, the EC secretary said there’s no provision in the law stipulating a minimum voter turnout.
“The voter turnout in phase-1 stood at 43 percent and we expect it to surpass 45 percent in phase-2. As for the third phase we expect it to be between 40 and 45 percent,” he added.
Highlighting the balloting on Sunday, he said that 117 Upazilas were supposed to go to polls, but voting in Kishoreganj’s Katiadi Upazila has been suspended.
“The additional superintendent of police and the officer-in-charge of the local police station have been withdrawn as well as an inquiry has been opened,” said Ahmed.
Voting at all 89 centres in Katiadi was suspended two hours after polls opened on allegations of ballot stuffing the night before.
Apart from Katiadi, voting in 14 polling stations out of the nearly 9,300 were suspended on Sunday due to irregularities, said the senior EC official.