Yes, there was tension among the voters in Pabna-2 by polls on; Thursday. Yes, there were incidents of violence. ¥ es, in some areas road blocks and other impediments were put up to intimidate voters not to come 1 :o vote. And yes there were voters who said they w ere afraid to return home after voting because the opponents might attack them on the way back. H owever, all the above incidenis werfc not widespreac I enough to make any substantial impact on the outcome. There was no firing, no major clash, nor any serious injury, leave alone any death, which axe: not unknown in our elections. The election was not perfect. However, the flaws were within acceptable limits. And therefore, we agree with the ot iservation of the CEC that the polls were "by and large free, fair and peaceful."

We also greatly s'hare his disappointment with our leading political parties. His urgings that ministers stay away fron i the polls went unheeded. The two ministers, who had virtually set up camps in Pabna, had an impact on the polls. Even if they did not, as they claim ed, use any official privilege their mere presence had an unhealthy influence on the election process. The biggest violations of the election code were contained in the promises of development projects and funds that AL ministers and leaders made during their campaigns. BNP should have protested against them more vigorously. BNP also made a vital mistake by not challenging the new electoral rolls, which showed an addition of nearly 20.000 new voters in less than three years time. However all of these were matters to be dealt with prio r to the polls day.

Our correspondents visited most of the polling centres where BN P claimed that their polling agents were forcibly thrown out. The fact as was told to us by the BN P candidate himself was that in several centres no BNP polling agent was assigned. Why? Because they did not feel safe. We have also learnt from EC sour ces that for many centres BNP did not send polling agents for training as was required to ensure smooth election.

When politics is reduced to claims and counter claims truth is the natural casualty. The Election Commission had put its full strength behind this one by-poll. in addition to the civil administration and police, the Army and the BDR were brought into service to ensure peace. In the very last minute the Returning Officer was changed. What else could the EC do to hold peaceful and fair polls?

We find BNP's Sunday hartal call most unfortunate. It has lost an election and now the nation will have to pay for it. It is the latest example of the politics of "Election is fair if I win it, Hartal is good if I call it."