Bangladesh EC suspends all polls amid coronavirus fear

The Election Commission has suspended the elections to Chattogram City Corporation and by-elections to parliamentary constituencies of Bogura-1 and Jashore-6 scheduled for March 29 over coronavirus fear.

The commission at a meeting at Nirbachan Bhaban on Saturday decided that all elections would remain suspended till further announcement, said the commission secretary M Alamgir at a press conference.

He said that Saturday’s by-polls at Dhaka-10, Gaibandha-3 and Bagerhat-4 were held as all proceedings had been completed before  detection of COVID-19 patients in Bangladesh.

He said that turnout of the by-polls were about 5 per cent in Dhaka-10, and 40 per cent in Gaibandha-3 and Bagerhat-4 as per information provided by the returning officers till 2:00pm.

He said that the commission was not embarrassed at the low turnout as ensuring voter’s presence at polling station was not a duty of the commission.

He said that there was no way to force voters to appear in the polling stations and there was no provision of minimum turnout to make an election acceptable.

Replying a question, he said that the rate of turnout in electronic voting machines was low than paper ballots as there was no scope of casting fake vote through EVMs.

The polls to Dhaka-10 were held using EVMs and the Directorate General of Health Services on Friday said that use of EVMs increase risks of coronavirus transmission.  

The first three coronavirus cases were announced in the country on March 8 while the first death was reported on March 18.

The commission faced huge criticism for holding the polls amid coronavirus at Dhaka-10, Gaibandha-3 and Bagerhat-4 on Saturday.

News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net