Dhaka - At least two supporters of rival political camps
were killed and dozens others injured Friday in a spate of violence
in different parts of Bangladesh following local elections, police
said.
A supporter of the ruling Awami League (AL) party was stabbed to
death by rivals in the central Faridpur district while an activist of
the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) was killed by AL
supporters in the south-western Narail district over election
disputes, reports said.
Thursday's elections to local government sub-district councils,
called Upazila Parishad, were marred by reports of alleged ballot
stuffing by AL supporters and sporadic violence, leaving as many as
200 people injured across the country.
While candidates were not running on party tickets, AL-supported
candidates won 183 seats according to unofficial results from 295 of
475 upazila. BNP-backed candidates got 59 seats while the rest went
to other small parties.
The Election Commission, which expressed frustration over vote
rigging and unwarranted pressure created by a section of ruling party
lawmakers and even a minister, was compiling results until Friday.
The upazila election, the first in nearly two decades, was marked
by a low turnout compared to last month's general elections.
Election Commission chief ATM Shamsul Huda said Thursday that the
election was marred by irregularities and alleged that the ruling
party influenced the polls.
An AL spokesman dismissed the allegation saying turnout could have
been higher had the political parties nominated their candidates.
'We should not be accused for any influence since our party did
not file any candidates in line with the rules,' Syed Ashraful Islam,
the minister for local government, said.
The local elections were a first test for the new government of
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wazed who won a landslide victory in
parliamentary polls less than a month ago, ending two years of
military rule.
The parliamentary elections, conducted by the army-backed interim
administration of Fakhruddin Ahmed, were generally peaceful with
local and international observers calling them credible.
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