UP poll taints credibility of the ruling party

The ugly face of vote tampering has been starkly exposed in the recent upazila parishad elections to the utter dismay of the citizens. We have seen pictures of voting centres being captured by the ruling party goons and fake ballot papers stuffed into the ballot boxes. It is ominous for our democracy.
The present opposition party in the 10th parliament, Jatiya Party is seen nowhere in the upazila elections which is really funny and comical. The JP candidates have won only 2 of the 291 chairman posts, and 12 of the 582 vice-chairman posts, including those reserved for women.
It is an embarrassing situation for the ruling party and the so called opposition party. With the tainted 3rd phase upazila election, the ruling party has proved again that a free, fair election is not possible under a partisan government, at least for the moment. Our leaders have failed to create an atmosphere to create such credible situation and all the major political parties are to share this blame. More than the others, the ruling party will have to pay for their wrong and foolhardy actions.  

Akmal Hossain
Narayanganj