Dhaka, Nov 22 (Just News): Chief Election Commissioner KM Nurul Huda today instructed law enforcers “not to harass” presiding officers ahead of the upcoming elections.
The instruction came in purview of lawmen walking up to the doorsteps of presiding officers for “verification” purpose, according to what the CEC said.
“We did not instruct you to do this. Don’t do this. This is embarrassing. We did not want this,” the CEC said at a special meeting with the law enforcers.
The inspector general of police, metropolitan commissioners, deputy inspector general, and superintendent of police were present in the meeting at Agargaon.
CEC Huda also urged law enforcers not to file harassment cases against anyone and said: “Police is filing harassment cases against people. Do not do that.”
The law enforcers were also asked to ensure the safety of minority communities so that they can cast their votes safely and return home.
Police were gathering a host of personal information, including political leanings, about probable polling officials in many districts, according to a number of media reports published recently.
Many of the prospective polling officials, mostly school and college teachers said they worked as presiding officer, assistant presiding officer and polling officer in past elections without having to go through such verification.
Dozens of teachers in Narayanganj, Pabna, Dinajpur, Satkhira and Kushtia talked to a national daily recently about their concerns.
The information being gathered by police includes the names of possible polling officers and their family members and political affiliations of all members of the families.
