Allegations of rigging mark GCC election

The Gazipur City Corporation (GCC) polls came to an end on Tuesday amid allegations of rigging and irregularities, reports bdnews24.com.

Voting was postponed at nine polling stations amid allegations of irregularities, according to election officials.

The allegations of casting fake votes and obstruction of BNP polling agents by activists of the ruling Awami League sparked some incidents of vandalism in the city area.

But the election was largely peaceful.

Gazipur residents exercised their voting rights at 245 centres to elect a mayor for five years.

As many as 256 candidates contested for 57 general councillor posts while 84 fought for 19 councillor posts reserved for women.

Though candidates of six parties and one independent aspirant ran for the mayoral post, the main battle took place between the ruling Awami League's Jahangir Alam and the BNP's Hasan Uddin Sarker.

Security measures were taken to ensure a free, fair and neutral election. A total of 16,000 members of the police, RAB, BGB, Ansar and different law enforcement agencies were deployed to maintain law and order.

Meanwhile, the Election Commission has postponed voting at nine polling stations in Gazipur City for incidents like snatching of ballot boxes and stuffing of ballot papers by force, but claimed there were no irregularities in the other 416 centres.

The commission kept its word to make the election in Gazipur fair, EC Secretary Helal Uddin Ahmed claimed at a news conference in Dhaka after the voting ended at 4.0pm on Tuesday.

The number of voters in the nine postponed centres is around 24,000, according to the EC.

The BNP has alleged agents of its mayoral candidate Hasan Uddin Sarker were driven out from over 100 centres.

The party's delegation described the Gazipur civic polls as "grand festival of fake votes" in a meeting with the EC.

Helal said he did not want to comment on the issue because he was not aware of what was discussed in that meeting.

He claimed the photos and videos of irregularities in the polling stations posted on the social media were inauthentic.