Bangladesh's Awami League (AL) has swept the just concluded local government body polls, securing 225 chairmen posts in the 458 upazilas, amid allegations of widespread rigging by the ruling party.
Opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) bagged 156 chairmen posts in the five-phased polls held between February 19 and March 31. At least six people died in the violence that ensued during the polls.
"We have seen some old techniques of election rigging that reappeared in the upazila polls this time," said Abdul Alim, director of Election Working Group while fellow government expert Tofayel Ahmed suggested that the results be scrapped and polls be conducted afresh.
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The Election Commission too came under attack by local media and election watchdogs for its failure to ensure fair polls.
The Prothom Alo today carried a story titled "Election system destroyed" and "Election Commission exposed to crisis of confidence", while another major daily Samokal's story was titled "EC had no control over field level administration".
"Upazila elections reconfirm return of past demons," said The New Age newspaper in an editorial.
The BNP in a statement said the "upazila elections unmasked the other face of the government and the EC".
"The election revealed further the government's real face ... It proved no election under this government can be fair," said BNP standing committee member Mahbubur Rahman.
Acting chief election commissioner Mohammad Shah Newaj admitted "anomalies in some areas".
Senior government leader and Communication Minister Obaidul Quader, however, said compared to the "conflicting political scenario", the elections were largely fair.
But leaders of the Grand Alliance said Awami League leaders' interference in the polls would help the BNP realise its demand of holding national elections under a non-party caretaker administration.
"Interference by ruling party supporters in the local body polls, especially in the third, fourth and fifth phases, was very much undesirable," said Sharif Nurul Ambia, general secretary of Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (JSD), an AL ally.
Anisur Rahman Mollik, general secretary of another AL partner, Workers Party, said "democratic norms and conditions had been violated in the upazila parishad elections".
An analysis in The Daily Star newspaper read "despite resorting to widespread rigging in the just-concluded upazila polls, the Awami League has failed to match the success it had in the local body elections five years ago, which indicates a sharp decline in its popularity".
