'Free, fair'

The Election Commission has claimed that yesterday's Gazipur City Corporation polls were held in a free, fair and credible manner. 

EC acting secretary Helal Uddin Ahmed made the claim while addressing a post-election press conference at the commission office in the capital.

"Free and fair elections were held at 416 [polling] centres in a festive atmosphere while voting at nine centres out of total 425 was suspended based on allegations of irregularities," he said.

Apart from those nine centres, there were no irregularities in the election, he claimed.

The EC had instructed the polls officials to stop voting if they found any irregularities, he said. "And for this, we did not tolerate any irregularities. Presiding officers, in line with the directives of the Election Commission, stopped voting at the nine centres.”

Several videos, believed to be showing polls-related irregularities in Gazipur, were uploaded on social media yesterday.

Asked about the issue, the EC acting secretary claimed those were not trustworthy.

"Internal feuds among the councillor candidates have led to irregularities that forced us to stop voting at the nine centres," he added.n