, Dec. 23 -- The Election Commission (EC) on Tuesday instructed field administration and police officials to take all necessary legal measures to ensure a smooth and violence-free national election and referendum, warning that failure to hold a credible poll would amount to failure of the country itself.

"If this election fails, we all will fail - Bangladesh will fail," Election Commissioner Anwarul Islam Sarker addressing a view-exchange and electoral management briefing arranged in the city's Nirbachan Bhaban for the returning officers and top officials of the field administration and police ahead of the upcoming national election and the referendum on the July National Charter (Constitutional Reform) Implementation Order, scheduled to...