Staff Reporter :
The BNP has pulled out of the three City Corporation polls claiming widespread vote rigging and capturing of polling centres by ruling party men with the help of law enforcers and polling officials.
BNP Standing Committee member Barrister Moudud Ahmed alleged that agents of the party-backed mayoral and councillor aspirants were prevented from entering voting centres and ruling party men with the help of police captured centres at night and stuffed ballot boxes with fake votes well before the balloting started on Tuesday morning.
He made the election withdrawal announcement at a press conference at the party’s Naya Paltan central office around 12 noon on Tuesday. The party-backed mayor candidates for Dhaka North Tabith Awal and Dhaka South Mirza Abbas’ wife were with the BNP Standing Committee member.
“What is taking place cannot be called voting. We reject this voter-less election which made fun of democracy,” he said.
Before the party’s polls reject decision in Dhaka, BNP-supported mayor aspirant in Chittagong
M Manjur Alam announced his election pill-out decision raising allegations of large-scale vote rigging in the city polls from early Tuesday morning.
The former CCC mayor announced the election-rejection decision at a media briefing at his main election office in the Port City at 11:00am. He also announced of quitting politics.
Addressing the briefing Barrister Moudud said that the city election was worse than the January-5 farcical election. It seemed that after end of the polls, the ruling Awami League would claim that the polls were held with participation of huge voters. But less than five percent voters did not go to the polling centres due to panic and intimidation of ruling party men.
“It was not election. It can’t be termed as election. We have rejected the voter-less elections. It was a mockery of democracy,” he said.
Barrister Moudud said, “We took part in the election with the hope that it will be free and fair. But the government has made the elections meaningless. The EC has identified them as nothing but a puppet body of the government. The government and the EC suffered big defeat making the election farce.”
He further claimed that the polling agents of the BNP-backed candidates were either driven away or detained by the law enforcers from almost all the polling stations in Dhaka and Chittagong prior to beginning of the balloting or just after the beginning.
The BNP leader claimed that the polling agents were also beaten in a number of places. Apart from this, he alleged that a large number of outsiders with the help of law enforcers were present in all the polling centres to take part in the vote rigging and irregularities.
He said that the law enforcers were deployed not to ensure smooth holding of the elections but to harass the BNP agents and help the ruling party men. The polling officers, including presiding officers, also did the same, he added.
“It has been proved again that the people have no right to vote in the country. There is no democracy in the country,” he said.
Barrister Moudud mentioned that the noted citizen like Prof Dr Emajuddin Ahmad, former Vice-Chancellor of Dhaka University and also Convener of ‘Adarsho Dhaka Andolon’ that supported pro-BNP candidates, was harassed by the ruling party men while casting his vote at Dhaka College centre.
“Our fears have come true. The government has made polling meaningless, let alone organise a fair election,” he said, adding: “We want to say it unequivocally that the movement which is on to establish the right to vote will be stepped up.”
Prof. Emajuddin Ahmad told the briefing that he had never seen such a ‘hated and stigmatised’ election. Expressing regret for harassing him, he said a young man verbally abused him in front of Dhaka College.
“The way that student (who appeared to be a student) talked to me suggests that all my teaching career is a failure. I am really ashamed of it. He may be the student of my student,” the former VC said.
