Comilla city polls a good start for EC: EWG

The Election Working Group, an alliance of 28 civil society organisations, on Saturday said that holding the Comilla City Corporation elections in an ‘efficient and professional manner’ was a good start for the recently constituted Election Commission.
The EWG, at a press conference at CIRDAP auditorium in the capital, issued a preliminary statement on the March 30 Comilla city elections.
‘Despite a small number of observed incidents of malpractice, irregularities and violence, EWG evaluates the Comilla City Corporation elections as a good start for the 12th Election Commission led by KM Nurul Huda,’ said the statement.
It observed that the elections had been held generally without any major incident, though there were scattered incidents of violence and attempts of ballot stuffing in the afternoon.
‘In general, polling officials were neutral, voting was undertaken in an efficient and professional manner and voters were able to cast their vote in an orderly manner. Voter turnout was 62.7 per cent as observed by the EWG,’ it added.
It asserted that in most of the polling stations observed by the group, voting had taken place without any significant incident in the morning, however, its observers witnessed poll violations in the afternoon in 15.8 per cent of observed polling stations.
‘Although in some polling stations, EWG observers saw unidentified individuals trying to do ballot stuffing, most observed attempts failed due to the steps taken by the election officials and the law enforcement,’ it said.
According to the statement, the EWG observed 12 incidents of violations in six polling stations mostly in the afternoon.
EWG members Nazmul Ahsan Kalimullah, Abdul Awal and Harunur Rashid addressed the conference.

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