DHAKA, Dec 31, 2018 (BSS) – Election Commission (EC) Secretary Helal
Uddin Ahmed today said the 11th parliamentary election held on Sunday will
remain as a ‘bright example’ in national life.
“This is a huge event in the history of Bangladesh as the voting to the
11th parliamentary election took place in a very free, fair and peaceful
environment under a political government,” he told reporters at the EC
Secretariat here on the outcomes of the election.
He said many local and foreign observers have expressed their
satisfaction over the voting.
Helal said the Awami League-led Grand Alliance gained a massive victory in
this election to run the government for a straight three terms.
He also informed the media that so far the results to some 298
constituencies out of 300 have been announced since the election to three
centres at Brahmanbaria-2 has been withheld. “There’ll be re-voting in these
three centres.”
In Gaibandha-3 constituency polling was postponed as Dr ATM Fazle Rabbi
of BNP-led 20-party alliance candidate died of old-age complications.
The EC Secretary extended gratitude to all the political parties,
including Awami League, for taking part in this election amid festivity.
He said the Commission was taking preparations over the last one year to
hold the election in a successful way and in this process they prepared
voters list, completed delimitation of 300 constituencies, appointed the
returning officers and assistant returning officers after announcement of the
polls schedule, and held meetings with political parties.
Helal Uddin said about 15 lakh polling officials and members of law
enforcement agencies were engaged to help hold the election in a free and
fair manner with the participation of some 39 political parties and 1,846
candidates.
This election was a huge event in national life except some sporadic
incidents as the EC has stopped polling at 22 centres for sporadic clashes
and incidents out of the overall number of around 40,000 centres, he said
quoting Chief Election Commissioner KM Nurul Huda as saying.
About the EVM use in voting, the EC Secretary said EVMs were used in six
constituencies and there were curiosity, interest and anxiety over the use of
these machines.
“But, we’ve been able to successfully use the EVMs…we’ll use EVMs in
the upcoming elections. We will consider on how to get the results from these
EVMs much earlier in the future,” he added.
Helal Uddin said the Commission is yet to calculate the overall
percentage of votes casted in this election, adding their next big task will
be to publish the gazette notification of the election results.
“Thus it will hand over it to the Speaker of Parliament for taking next
steps and proceedings.”
The EC Secretary congratulated the Awami League for gaining the
overwhelming victory side by side thanked the other political parties to
cooperate with the EC for holding this election successfully.