Local polls held in a free, fair and peaceful manner: EWG

DHAKA, Bangladesh Aug 6 (BSS) - Election Working Group (EWG), a local government poll observer alliance, today termed the yesterday's
local body polls as free, fair and credible as it was held in a
peaceful manner with the spontaneous participation of people.

Addressing a press conference in the city, EWG Director Dr
Zahrul Alam Said, according to the EWG's preliminary analysis
based on over 3,000 election observers proved that the voting
process in the yesterday's local government polls in four city
corporations and nine municipalities was acceptable than ever
before.

"We delayed to asses our evaluation results soon after the
voting as one third of our election observers were not permitted
to monitor the ballot counting," he said adding, " We saw the
election was held peacefully. We received no report of
fraudulent dealings and unethical practices during the polls."

EWG executive committee members Munira Khan, Binoy Krisna
Mallik, A H M Noman and Noman A Khan also spoke at the press
conference.

They advised the Bangladesh Election Commission to take
lessons from this election for smooth holding of the national
elections in order to ensure credibility and transparency.

They also called for preparing for timely accreditation of
observers well before each election day as well as providing all
presiding officers and law enforcement agencies with written
guidelines about observers.