For credible poll at Gazipur

Hence, with the experience of Dhaka-10 in the background, how this election passes off and with what results will help us form a clear impression about the credibility of the by-electoral processes as a whole.

Only a few days back, none other than the acting Chief Election Commissioner warned the candidates of all three major political parties -- BNP, AL and JP -- that they were violating electoral rules thereby making themselves liable for punitive measures. Action didn't follow; the concern remained.

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Now, with the election almost upon us, here is what we have from a report in a prominent Bangla daily: among the 195 presiding officers being inducted for the job, nearly 50 of them have had something to do with BNP politics. Of the 3,048 assistant presiding and polling officers, about a thousand are known to have been involved with BNP politics. We don't expect the officials to be without any political affiliations, but the question here is, whether they have been commandeered on purpose or not.

With the floods on, some 30 percent of the polling centres have been submerged raising the possibility of lower-than-expected voter turn-out.

With that in view, the Election Commission, local administration and security personnel on duty need to be on maximum alert to be able to stave off any attempt at voter intimidation or poll rigging. The constituency has a large number of Hindu voters who must not be allowed to be intimidated by any quarters. The bottomline is: we want a free and fair by-election in Gazipur.