Dhaka: Narayanganj City Corporation (NCC) election was the best election polls under the current Election Commission, said the Election Working Group (EWG), a non-partisan network of 28 local civil society organisations on Saturday.

“The election was the best election under this Election Commission headed by Kazi Rakibuddin Ahmad. The polls were most peaceful and credible,” said EWG director Abdul Alim at a press conference in the city.

The EWG arranged the press conference at the Cirdap auditorium to present its preliminary observation report over the NCC election held on Thursday last.

The election is the last major polls under the commission as its five-year tenure is going to expire on February 8, 2017.

Alim, in a written speech, said the group observed 31 polling stations out of 174 in the NCC election and found no irregularity and violence during the major election.

“We’ve found no violence, not seen stuffing ballot. We found no voter was obstructed. This is why our observation is that Narayanganj election was most peaceful and credible,” he said.

He said the voters had got chance of exercising their franchise as election conducting officials performed the duty impartially with their competence and professionalism.

The EWG director said they selected the 31 polling stations randomly to observe the election. Of the stations, the EGW observers had not been allowed to enter into only three polling stations during the ballot-counting.

The observers found polling agents of two major political parties in all the 31 polling stations.

“No polling agent or voter was ousted from the polling station. We did not receive any allegation of such irregularities from any candidate or political party or agent as well,” he said.

According to observation of the EWG, some 24 percent votes were cast from 8am to till 10am, 45 percent till 1pm and 56 percent till 3pm, he noted.

It also found that there was no presence of unwarranted persons in the vote-counting room, Alim said.

Ruling Awami League mayoral candidate Dr Selina Hayat Ivy was unofficially reelected NCC mayor as she defeated BNP contestant Sakhawat Hossain Khan by a big margin of 77,902 votes in the election.

Ivy bagged 174,602 votes while Sakhawat polled 96,700.