Dhaka: The Election Commission on Wednesday rebuked the Superintendent of Police and five officers in‑charge of police of Satkhira for their failure to check election irregularities during the first phase of the union election.

Responding to the EC’s summon, the six police officers participated in a hearing at the EC Secretariat here over the polls anomalies, particularly predawn stuffing of ballot boxes.

SP Chowdhury Manzurul Kabir and OCs of Sadar, Shyamnagar, Debhata, Kolaroa and Patkelghata (under Tala Upazila) police stations joined the hearing held from 11:00am to 2:00pm with Chief Election Commissioner Kazi Rakibuddin Ahmad in the chair.

After the hearing, Election Commissioner Shah Nawaz told reporters that the police officers promised that they would not repeat such mistakes in the future.

‘We summoned them (police officials) to ascertain their faults and check recurrence of such mistakes in the future. They realised their mistakes and promised that they won’t repeat that in the future,’ he said.

The commission directed the police officials to arrest those involved in illegal activities and bring them to justice.

However, the SP declined to make any comment before the media while emerging from the EC Secretariat after the hearing.

An official at the EC Secretariat said the Commission rebuked the police officials saying failure to check stuffing was not expected.

Earlier, voting was postponed in 14 polling stations at six Union Parishads in the district due to stuffing of ballot boxes overnight, hours before the first phase balloting on March 22.

The Commission also issued directives to suspend the police officers who were in-charge in 11 out of the 14 polling stations for their negligence of duty which led to stuffing of ballot boxes.

During its first phase, elections to 712 UPs were held on March 22 amid violence and irregularities. The balloting in 65 polling stations across the country was postponed.