As the Gazipur City Corporation polls nears climax, supporters of the two frontrunners add new heat by raising allegations against each other regarding the appointment of presiding officers.
While Awami League backed candidate Azmat Ullah Khan alleged that many opposition supporters had been made election staff, BNP-backed aspirant MA Mannan claimed that almost the entire staff comprised of ruling party men.
Azmat Ullah Khan’s supporters complained that BNP and Jamaat men, especially the employees of the Islami Bank, were preferred for appointment as election staff, including presiding and polling officers.
The Election Commission (EC) said it had already started reshuffling and appointing new presiding officers in line with the allegations.
Returning Officer of GCC polls Matiar Rahman slammed the two sides saying none of them raised any question when the EC sat with them before finalising the names of the presiding officers.
“We have requested the candidates to lodge specific complaints so that we can take action. We have already withdrawn some of the officials,” he said.
Matiar also said they would accept allegations till a certain time.
After that they would not have the scope to entertain any allegation because they would then get busy with other issues as the area of the city corporation was huge, he said.
While these correspondents were talking to the EC official, representatives of both the candidates came to the returning officer’s workplace to lodge complaints against presiding officers.
“We have expressed our reservation about 34 presiding officers and urged the election commission to withdraw them from the voting process,”
Amanat Hossain Khan, election coordination of Azmat Ullah, told the Dhaka Tribune.
On the other hand, ASM Hannan Shah, chief election coordinator of Mannan, said they had issues with a number of presiding officers but denied to reveal the exact number.
However, a senior BNP leader said they had complained about a total of 81 presiding officers.
392 presiding officers, 289 assistant presiding officers and 4,578 polling officers will carry out duties in the GCC polls on July 6.