By Xinhua,
Dhaka : Bangladesh’s 9th Parliamentary election which just concluded Monday was observed a qualitative change with less violence took place comparing with previous ones.
According to different reports, there were only a few minor clashes happened in pre- and during polls leaving dozens injured.
Statistics show during pre-poll campaigns of the country’s Parliamentary election in 2001, some 38 people were killed while 1,671 people injured due to political violence.
And there were six people killed while 161 injured in pre-poll campaigns in 1996 Parliamentary election.
While talking about why there is a congenial environment in this election, security analyst and also a professor of Dhaka University Imtiaz Ahmed told Xinhua, “The security has been beefed up during nearly two years’ state of emergency in the country.”
He said presence of local and foreign poll observers and commitment from political parties against terrorism helped to curbpre-polls violence.
Ahmed said the Election Commission, which set a number of electoral codes of conducts like restricting vehicular movement, banning campaigns a day before the election and 48 hours after the election, also created a good atmosphere for the election.
The caretaker government deployed security forces numbered around 600,000 including 50,000 army throughout the country to make sure voters exercise their right peacefully without fear.
Around 200,000 election observers including more than 500 foreign observers monitored the polling and will monitor the counting processes and results announcement to make sure the election is transparent.
The 9th Parliamentary election was scheduled to be held on Jan.22, 2007. Due to the differences between BNP and Awami League over election issues, the political situation deteriorated. President Iajuddin Ahmed on Jan. 11, 2007 had to declare a state of emergency and postponed the election.
The new caretaker government headed by former central bank governor Fakhruddin Ahmed took office on Jan. 12, 2007 and has promised to hold a free and fair elections.