Over 23,000 'no' votes in Rangamati

Most of those cast by UPDF

3 January 2009, 18:00 PM

Our Correspondent, Rangamati

At least 32,066 'no' votes were cast in Rangamati constituency in the December 29 parliamentary election, election officials here have said. Most of the 'no' votes were cast by activists and supporters of United Peoples Democratic Front (UPDF), a body of indigenous people which oppose the CHT peace accord signed by its rival Parbattya Chattagran Jana Sanghati Samity (PCJSS). UPDF, a CHT based political platform of indigenous people, campaigned for 'no' vote in Rangamati after failing to filed candidate from as the Election Commission did not register it. UPDF did not support any party in the poll. Rather it, campaigned for 'no' vote, terming all contestants of different political parties 'unfit, dishonest and corrupt'. “The number of 'no' vote would have been double if we could conduct campaign freely. But due to restrictions and vigilance by law enforcers, we could not do that”, UPDF leader and its election coordinator Shantideb Chakma told The Daily Star yesterday. A false propaganda about an electoral understanding between PCJSS and UPDF also reduced the number of 'no' votes, he said. “It was false and baseless”.