Two killed in Bangladesh post-election violence

Jan 23, 2009, 12:20 GMT

   Dhaka - At least two supporters of rival political camps were killed and dozens others injured Friday in a spate of violence in different parts of Bangladesh following local elections, police said.

   A supporter of the ruling Awami League (AL) party was stabbed to death by rivals in the central Faridpur district while an activist of the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) was killed by AL supporters in the south-western Narail district over election disputes, reports said.

   Thursday's elections to local government sub-district councils, called Upazila Parishad, were marred by reports of alleged ballot stuffing by AL supporters and sporadic violence, leaving as many as 200 people injured across the country.

   While candidates were not running on party tickets, AL-supported candidates won 183 seats according to unofficial results from 295 of 475 upazila. BNP-backed candidates got 59 seats while the rest went to other small parties.

   The Election Commission, which expressed frustration over vote rigging and unwarranted pressure created by a section of ruling party lawmakers and even a minister, was compiling results until Friday.

   The upazila election, the first in nearly two decades, was marked by a low turnout compared to last month's general elections.

   Election Commission chief ATM Shamsul Huda said Thursday that the election was marred by irregularities and alleged that the ruling party influenced the polls.

   An AL spokesman dismissed the allegation saying turnout could have been higher had the political parties nominated their candidates.

   'We should not be accused for any influence since our party did not file any candidates in line with the rules,' Syed Ashraful Islam, the minister for local government, said.

   The local elections were a first test for the new government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wazed who won a landslide victory in parliamentary polls less than a month ago, ending two years of military rule.

   The parliamentary elections, conducted by the army-backed interim administration of Fakhruddin Ahmed, were generally peaceful with local and international observers calling them credible.