Staff Reporter: Election Commissioner Mahbub Talukder has said that the violence in the municipal elections has been continuously increasing. Violence and elections cannot go together.

He said it was not possible to stop the violence if the electoral process did not change. Everyone needs to agree on this. Human life is much more valuable than any election.

Mahbub Talukder made the remarks at the Savar College Center after inspecting several polling stations in the Savar municipal polls on Saturday (January 18th) at noon.

"I visit 16 booths in three polling stations in Savar municipality," he said. Till 1 pm, 1232 out of 6311 voters have cast their votes in all those polling stations. In 3 booths I saw polling agents of 3 opposition candidates, but there were no agents anywhere else.

Mahbub Talukder said, "Besides, I did not see any poster of the opposition candidate in Savar municipal area." In this case, the election is not participatory. Any election is not perfect if it is not participatory. Unilateral elections are never desirable.

Incidentally, in the second phase, counting is going on in 60 municipalities of the country after the polling. Voting starts at 8am on Saturday (January 18) and continues until 4pm. Electronic voting machines (EVMs) were used for voting in 26 out of 60 municipalities in today's election.

Spontaneous voter turnout was observed at polling stations, but boycotts were not ruled out. In Mongla, 15 candidates, including the BNP mayoral candidate, boycotted the polls. Besides, boycotts took place in Kuliyarchar of Kishoreganj and Bhabaniganj of Rajshahi.