“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”.
