BNP's boycott of city polls regrettable

Swedish Ambassador to Bangladesh Johan Frisell has regretted that BNP boycotted Tuesday's city corporation elections in Dhaka and Chittagong and urged all political actors to act within the framework of the political institutions of the country.

Sharing his experiences with The Daily Star yesterday, he narrated what actually happened at Kabi Nazrul Government College in Old Dhaka during his visit and how the violence occurred between the supporters of two councillor candidates.

The ambassador, along with officials and local staff of the embassy, visited around eight polling centres to observe the election.

Asked what happened to him at the Kabi Nazrul college on Tuesday, Frisell said, "It is true that violence broke out when I and my election observation team were visiting the polling centre, but we were not in any danger. We moved to the second floor to get away from the turmoil on the ground. The police helped us."

Giving his account as a witness, he said that when a councillor candidate entered the polling station, he was attacked and hurt by supporters of another contestant. 

Frisell said the candidate was bleeding and brought to a place, just from where they were watching the polling. 

Soon afterwards, said the ambassador, the supporter groups of the two candidates started to fight each other with sticks and stones. 
"The police were surprisingly passive at the start," he said. 

The result was that polling was suspended and lots of voters were hindered from voting and exercising their democratic rights, the Swedish envoy said, adding that probably, it scared away even more people.

Assessing the elections as a whole, the ambassador said that after hearing reports from other teams from his own embassy and other embassies and observers, "I realise that what I experienced at Kabi Nazrul was not an isolated event."

"We also hear reports of several occasions when voters have been denied to vote because they were already ticked off in the voters list," he said. "The decision of BNP to boycott the elections is also regrettable," he added.

Over 80 foreign observers of different diplomatic missions, UN bodies, and election and rights groups along with their local officials observed the city polls in Dhaka and Chittagong.