Dhaka: Election Commission (EC) Secretary Helal Uddin Ahmed on Monday said the 11th parliamentary election held on Sunday will remain as a ‘bright example’ in national life.

‘This is a huge event in the history of Bangladesh as the voting to the 11th parliamentary election took place in a very free, fair and peaceful environment under a political government,’ he told reporters at the EC Secretariat in Dhaka on the outcomes of the election, reports the BSS.

He said many local and foreign observers have expressed their satisfaction over the voting.

Helal said the Awami League-led Grand Alliance gained a massive victory in this election to run the government for a straight three terms.

He also informed the media that so far the results to some 298 constituencies out of 300 have been announced since the election to three centres at Brahmanbaria-2 has been withheld. ‘There’ll be re-voting in these three centres.’

In Gaibandha-3 constituency polling was postponed as Dr ATM Fazle Rabbi of BNP-led 20-party alliance candidate died of old-age complications.

The EC Secretary extended gratitude to all the political parties, including Awami League, for taking part in this election amid festivity.

He said the Commission was taking preparations over the last one year to hold the election in a successful way and in this process they prepared voters list, completed delimitation of 300 constituencies, appointed the returning officers and assistant returning officers after announcement of the polls schedule, and held meetings with political parties.

Helal Uddin said about 15 lakh polling officials and members of law enforcement agencies were engaged to help hold the election in a free and fair manner with the participation of some 39 political parties and 1,846 candidates.

This election was a huge event in national life except some sporadic incidents as the EC has stopped polling at 22 centres for sporadic clashes and incidents out of the overall number of around 40,000 centres, he said quoting Chief Election Commissioner KM Nurul Huda as saying.

About the EVM use in voting, the EC Secretary said EVMs were used in six constituencies and there were curiosity, interest and anxiety over the use of these machines.

‘But, we’ve been able to successfully use the EVMs…we’ll use EVMs in the upcoming elections. We will consider on how to get the results from these EVMs much earlier in the future,’ he added.

Helal Uddin said the Commission is yet to calculate the overall percentage of votes casted in this election, adding their next big task will be to publish the gazette notification of the election results.

‘Thus it will hand over it to the Speaker of Parliament for taking next steps and proceedings.’

The EC Secretary congratulated the Awami League for gaining the overwhelming victory side by side thanked the other political parties to cooperate with the EC for holding this election successfully.