Upazila elections in Sonargaon upazila of Narayanganj ended yesterday amid sporadic clashes between activists of the Awami League-backed chairman candidate and the AL rebel candidate centring forcible occupation of polling stations.
Polling in five centres was suspended following the clashes.
Out of a total of 108 polling stations, the Election Commission suspended polling in five centres, including Sadhipur High School, Paikpara Government Primary School, Nunertek High School, Char Vulua Government Primary School and Sammanadi Government Primary School.
“Clashes between activists of two chairman candidates forced us to cancel polling in the five stations. Around 12,000 votes were expected in those,” said returning officer Md Mahmud Hasan.
The two sides attempted to manipulate results in favour of their respective candidates, he said.
In reply to a question, Mahmud Hasan said 12,000 votes out of a total of 262,490 would not affect the final outcomes.
The warring activists tried to influence voters in the polling centres and were resisted by assistant presiding officers.
Around 2:30pm yesterday, this correspondent found activists of both the candidates entering polling booths forcefully and stamping ballots illegally.
This correspondent also found a ballot that had been stamped twice, one for the AL-backed candidate’s “pineapple” symbol and the other for the AL rebel candidate’s “ink-pen” symbol, at Bhabanathpur Government Primary School centre.
Presiding officer Jibonanondo Das later cancelled the ballots and said he had been dealing with these unruly activists since morning.
Apart from the incidents, participation of voters was somewhat spontaneous. They were seen standing in queues outside polling stations, waiting to cast their votes.
Activists of three leading chairman aspirants, including AL-backed Moshharraf Hossain, AL rebel candidate Mahfuzur Rahman Kalam and BNP-backed Azharul Islam Mannan, were seen in each polling station.
Asked about possible winners, most of the voters said each of them was likely to claim victory.
