CEC
Violence Prevention in Local Elections Poses Major Challenge
CEC AMM Nasir Uddin
Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) AMM Nasir Uddin has said that preventing violence in local government elections will emerge as a major challenge. He stated that conducting peaceful and conflict-free elections is not possible without the cooperation of political parties.
The CEC made the remarks on Thursday at a hotel in Gulshan, Dhaka, during a program organized by the Asian Network for Free Elections (ANFREL), where a report on the 13th National Parliamentary Election and referendum was presented.
Highlighting the challenges in local government polls, Nasir Uddin said, “Now, the ‘local polls’ have emerged as a huge challenge before us. We have to conduct elections in 4,581 union parishads, 500 upazilas, 61 districts, 13 city corporations, and 330 municipalities. This is a huge task ahead. There will be no shortage of effort from our side.”
He added, “Democracy does not exist only at the national level. For the sake of the country and everyone’s interest, it must reach the grassroots. There, democracy is even more important because they directly deliver services to the people.”
The CEC said that local government elections would be held to the same standard as the 13th National Parliamentary Election.
Citing data from an organization on local government elections, he said, “In the 2016 local government elections, 236 people were killed. In the 2021 union elections, 116 people were killed. I have seen local government elections in the 1980s; there were many murders. Hospitals were full of injured people.”
He said, “Violence in local government elections must be stopped. Stopping this is a major challenge. We do not want any bloodshed.”
When asked whether conducting local government elections under a political government would be easier for the Election Commission, Nasir Uddin said the commission’s goal is to prevent killings and violence in every local government election. “We are fighting to ensure that such violence does not happen. We are working toward that goal, and that is our objective.”
