Dhaka: Bangladesh’s Election Commission is investigating allegations of vote rigging coming from across the country Sunday as polling for a general election marred by violence ended and counting began.
Clashes between supporters of the ruling Awami League and its opponents killed at least 17 and wounded more than 20, police said, amid reports that more than three dozen opposition candidates complaining of alleged vote rigging had pulled out of the first competitive poll in the country in a decade.
The main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) said one of its candidates from Dhaka was stabbed while he was moving around in his constituency. Police said the circumstances of the attack on Salahuddin Ahmed were not yet clear.
The Election Commission said it would act if rigging was confirmed, even as at least three voters in southeast Bangladesh, including a journalist, said they were barred from entering polling booths or were told their ballot papers had already been filled in.
“Allegations are coming from across the country and those are under investigation,” commission spokesman S.M. Asaduzzaman said. “If we get any confirmation from our own channels then measures will be taken as per rules.”
Reuters reporters across the country of 165 million people saw sparse turnout at polling booths during the election, widely expected to be won by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, giving her a third straight term in office.
Mobile internet was blocked and the streets of the capital were largely deserted as many had left to vote in their home towns. In nine polling centres Reuters reporters visited in Dhaka, posters bearing the Awami League’s “boat” symbol far outnumbered those of the opposition.
Mahbub Talukdar, one of the five election commissioners who stirred a controversy last week by saying there was no level-playing field for the parties, told Reuters he did not see any opposition polling agents near the Dhaka booth where he voted, suggesting they had been kept away.
The clashes in the Muslim-majority country broke out between workers of the Awami League and its opponents, led by the BNP of former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia. At least one of the victims was attacked by a machete-carrying group, police said, adding a man from a paramilitary auxiliary force also died.
Alleging vote manipulation, at least six candidates fighting against the Awami League withdrew from the contest in Khulna, a divisional headquarters 300 km (186 miles) southwest of Dhaka. Media reports said across the country more than 40 out of 287 opposition candidates in fray pulled out alleging vote rigging.
There are 300 parliamentary constituencies in the country.
Rasel, a 34-year-old voter in the southeastern district of Chittagong, said he saw police and some Awami League workers he knew stopping people from entering one polling centre.
“They told me that ‘voting is going on nicely, you don’t need to go inside’. If you try to enter, you will be in trouble’,” Rasel, who declined to give his second name fearing reprisals, told Reuters by phone.
The local electoral officer said he had investigated the incident and “found long queue in these centres and people were casting votes with a festive mood”. The Awami League said opposition supporters were wrongly accusing the party.
REUTERS
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