EC finds no flaws in walkovers

The Election Commission (EC) finds no flaws in the incidents of many chairman aspirants' being elected unopposed in the Union Parishad(UP) polls.

"If one does not want to contest, we have nothing to do. As per the law, anyone can be elected unopposed if no one else contested," said Election Commissioner Shah Nawaz while briefing reporters at the EC Secretariat yesterday.

"If one stays at home, we cannot force him/her to contest…It is not our concern where candidates have been elected unopposed. We will look into the issues if anything unlawful happens there," he added.

Elections to 732 UPs will be held on March 22 in the first phase and 650 UPs on March 31 in the second phase. Over 2,800 more UPs will go for polls in four other phases till June.

Some 62 ruling Awami League (AL)-nominated chairman aspirants have already been elected unopposed in the first phase, and 13 others are set to follow suit in the second phase.

However, media reports said AL men allegedly obstructed BNP-nominated candidates and AL's rebel aspirants from submitting their respective nomination papers in many areas.

When attention was drawn to these allegations, Shah Nawaz said, "We have taken necessary steps where we have found specific allegations, but we cannot take action on the basis of rumours."

The EC on March 2 suspended polls to six UPs in Phulgazi upzila of Feni, and urged the LGRD ministry to suspend the upazila chairman for influencing the polls there. The ministry later suspended him.

The EC the same day extended the deadline for submitting nominations for one day, in three UPs under the district's Pashuram upazila as some candidates alleged that they faced obstruction in submitting their nominations.