Local polls held in free, fair, peaceful manner: EWG

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Election Working Group (EWG), a local government poll observer alliance, Tuesday termed the Monday's local body polls as free, fair and credible as it was held in a peaceful manner with the spontaneous participation of people, reports BSS.

Addressing a press conference in the city, EWG Director Zahrul Alam said, according to the EWG's preliminary analysis based on over 3,000 election observers proved that the voting process in the Monday's local government polls in four city corporations and nine municipalities was acceptable than ever before.

"We delayed to asses our evaluation results soon after the voting as one third of our election observers were not permitted to monitor the ballot counting," he said adding, "We saw the election was held peacefully. We received no report of fraudulent dealings and unethical practices during the polls."

EWG executive committee members Munira Khan, Binoy Krisna Mallik, AHM Noman and Noman A Khan also spoke at the press conference.

They advised the Election Commission to take lessons from this poll for smooth holding of the national elections in order to ensure credibility and transparency.

They also called for preparing for timely accreditation of observers well before each Election Day as well as providing all presiding officers and law enforcement agencies with written guidelines about observers.