Reza Mahmud :
The BNP has taken today’s 11th National Polls as a difficult challenge in its long history.
“Most of our party leaders are in jail. Many of them are injured in attacks by ruling party men on several occasions. Others are staying out of their respective constituencies due to threats of arrests. In these circumstances, we cannot understand what type of election is it? Surely it is most challenging election for our party men across the country,” BNP Vice-Chairman Chowdhury Kamal Ibne Yusuf told The New Nation on Saturday.
He said, that police arrested my agents on Saturday, before the election day. There was no such heinous example of such police activities after our liberation.
Kamal Ibne Yusuf said, “If there will be a polls in free and fair manner, then my contestant from ruling Awami League will be defeated by over one lakh votes. But, now there is no minimum election atmosphere in my constituency and all over Bangladesh.”
He said, “I have contested seven national polls and worked for my father and uncle. But I never experienced such a bitter experience before.”
“It has proved that it is impossible to hold a fair and inclusive polls under the Awami League,” he said.
The BNP leader also said that Awami League has politically ruined by destroying the atmosphere of this election. They may go to power, but no one knows how many days they will be sustained in power.
The other leaders of the party also said the same.
They said, police conducted arrest campaigns everyday in every areas of the country.
BNP Senior Joint-Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi told The New Nation on Saturday, “Our party candidates and leaders are giving allegations over phone all day long about their arrest and harassments.”
He said police are directly threatening our party men and ordinary voters.
“Police are going every residence of our party leaders, activists and supporters. If they find any male member of those families then arrested them. If they do not get any male member then misbehaving with females and threatening them not to go to polling stations,” he said.
BNP senior leaders said, it is another one-sided polls. BNP candidates are confined in their homes, on the other hand the ruling party men are conducting campaign with music.
“It is a not a participatory election but a lopsided polls,” BNP leaders said.
BNP Joint-Secretary General Syed Moazzem Hossain Alal said, “The BNP is contesting not with the Awami League, but with police. The Election Commission is only place for us to submit our allegations. But the EC is playing a pro-ruling party role. The ruling party men are playing as goons. In such a terrific condition it is really difficult to go to polls. But we have taken it as our challenge. The voters only can play a vital role to save the country from more autocratic rule.”
He urged the voters to go to polling stations and vote in favour of Sheaf of Paddy symbol to restore democracy.
