BNP men foment violence and unrest in CCC polls: AL to EC

BNP leaders and activists have carried out attacks on Awami League men and fomented violence and unrest in the Chattogram City Corporation (CCC) election, alleged ruling party leaders on Wednesday.

"They also vandalised electronic voting machines (EVMs) and occupied a polling centre during the election," said Riazul Kabir Kawser, a member of the AL central committee.

Kawser made the allegations while speaking to journalists after filing a complaint with the Election Commission (EC) in this regard.

An AL delegation, headed by Kawser, handed over the complaint to EC Senior Secretary Mohammed Alamgir at the commission's headquarters in the capital.

Kawser said that the BNP activists stabbed the son of a Chattogram metropolitan AL leader, adding that many AL leaders and activists were injured in the attacks waged by BNP men.

Kawser also said, "Judging from the final month of campaigning, we thought that today's elections would be peaceful.

"We saw that about 65% of the votes were cast during the last two municipal elections. We thought voter turnout would increase this time as well."

But by engaging in various terrorist activities, BNP men created panic amongst voters, discouraging them from coming to polling centres to cast their votes, he further alleged. 

"We came to the Election Commission today to lodge this complaint as we feel these incidents need to be reported to the commission."