With union parishad elections getting closer, supporters of rival candidates are being engaged in clashes in several districts.

The BNP could not nominate anyone within the deadline yesterday for contesting the chairman posts in at least 25 Union Parishads in the second phase of elections for a lack of interest among its grassroots.

The BNP has alleged that the ruling Awami League and the Election Commission are plotting to ensure victories for the AL candidates in the union parishad polls through electoral irregularities, but the AL and the EC have brushed aside the allegations.

There could be conflict among candidates of the Awami League-led 14-party alliance in the upcoming union parishad elections if a consensus was not reached by partners, fears a number of alliance components.

Picking single candidates for the union parishad elections would be a daunting task for the ruling Awami League as the grassroots

The ruling Awami League has listed more than twenty of its lawmakers who will have to face disciplinary action for backing rebel candidates in Wednesday's municipality elections, say party insiders.

The pro-BNP councillor candidates did well in the municipal elections though their party-nominated mayor aspirants suffered a debacle, which has largely been blamed on rampant electoral irregularities.

Mayoral candidates of the ruling Awami League clinched a landslide victory in yesterday's election to 234 municipalities amid allegations of widespread electoral irregularities. AL candidates secured 179 mayoral posts while their rivals from the BNP got 21. And AL rebels obtained 19 posts. Ruling party men resorted to electoral irregularities in at least 80 municipalities with the local administration looking on. They stuffed ballot boxes and drove BNP candidates' agents out of polling centres, according to reports from The Daily Star correspondents.

The BNP has instructed its mayoral candidates and their polling agents not to leave the election centres “under any circumstances” during the casting of ballots, and that they stay there till the announcement of election results.