Staff Reporter :
The BNP on Tuesday rejected the Rajshahi and the Barishal City Corporation polls’ results held on Monday and demanded fresh election.
“We reject the polls’ results since the election was not fair and peaceful. Besides, polls’ agents of the opposition parties were driven away and votes were cast in favour of the AL candidates randomly among many other irregularities,” said BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir in a press conference at the parties central office in the capital.
The BNP Secretary General called for demonstrations in cities and district headquarters across the country on Thursday, protesting the vote rigging and massive irregularities in the three-city polls and for cancellation of the results and fresh election in Rajshahi and Barishal.
Mirza Fakhrul said, “It is not only Awami League, but EC, district and police administration also are our opponents. It had been shamefully exposed on the election day.”
“The police apparently acted against the BNP from the very day the election schedule was declared by the EC,” the BNP leader said.
About Sylhet city polls, the BNP leader said that their mayor candidate Ariful Haque Chowdhury could have won by a big margin if the election was held in a free and fair manner.
He said the Election Commission did not take any allegation submitted by the BNP into consideration, whereas the ruling AL men were involved in massive irregularities all day long. He said, it is now clear that a free, fair and inclusive election is not possible under this government and this EC. “The nation needs right now a strong and fearless EC, dissolution of the Parliament and the deployment of the Army for a credible general election,” he said.
BNP Standing Committee Members Gayeshwar Chandra Roy and Nazrul Islam Khan, Vice-Chairman Advocate Ahmed Azam Khan, Chairperson’s Advisors Aman Ullah Aman, Abdus Salam, Abdul Hye and Syed Mehedi Ahmed Rumi, Senior Joint-Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi, Joint-Secretary General Khairul Kabir Khokon and Assistant Organising Secretary Abdus Salam Azad, among others, were present.
