UNB, Dhaka :
Apprehending that ruling party men may try to manipulate the city polls by ‘flexing muscle’ in polling stations,
BNP is now working out various strategies, including the presence of huge voters and their strong polling agents at very centre, to check vote fraud on April 28.
Party senior leaders are highly optimistic that all the three BNP-blessed mayoral candidates in Dhaka south, Dhaka north and Chittagong city corporations will come out successful if an adequate number of voters can cast their votes peacefully as they said the ruling party has no popularity.
The BNP-led 20-party alliance has already formed two election coordination committees to oversee the overall electioneering in Dhaka city and work out strategies and action plans to ensure the victory of its Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) mayoral candidate Mirza Abbas and Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) mayoral runner Tabith Awal.
Of the two committees, one has been formed with BNP standing committee member Moudud Ahmed as its convener and party joint secretary general Barkatullah Bulu member secretary to oversee the
DNCC polls, while another constituted with BNP standing committee member ASM Hannan Shah as its convener and Gayeshwar Chandra Roy as its member secretary to monitor DSCC elections.
As Gayeshwar, also a party standing committee member, is now behind the bars, its leader Syed Moazzem Hossain Alal is discharging his responsibility as the Chief Election Organiser (CEO).
A similar committee has been formed in Chittagong with party vice chairman Abdullah Al Noman as its chief to work for 20-party blessed candidate Manjur Alam.
Besides, Adarsha Dhaka Andolan, an electoral platform of the pro-BNP professionals, is also working with the same objectives.
Talking to UNB over the city polls, BNP standing committee member Lt Gen (retd) Mahbubur Rahman said they are in doubt whether the government and the EC’s will hold the election in a free and fair manner.
“We’ve repeatedly urged the government and the Election Commission (EC) to create a level-playing field for all the candidates, but our calls have fallen on the deaf ears, putting the role of Commission into a big question,” he said.
Claiming that people and media are their main power, Mahbub said they are taking all-out preparations to thwart the government’s any plot to snatch victory of BNP-blessed candidates. “Our main target is to ensure the presence of a significant number of voters.”
Contacted, Syed Moazzem Hossain Alal said the attitudes of the government and the EC so far they have shown suggest that there is no possibility of a fair election. “But we hope the good sense will prevail upon the government and the EC to hold the city polls in a free and fair manner.”
Mentioning that the government will be the biggest loser if the polls are rigged, Alal said, “We’ll only lose polls if the ruling party resorts to manipulations. But, the government will lose its minimum credibility and acceptability with that, and our demand for a fresh election will be justified further.”
Asked what their election coordination committees are doing, Alal said they are making the lists of agents of their party backed-mayoral and councillor candidates and holding meetings with local leaders and activists to encourage the voters to go to polling stations under any circumstances.
Alal said, they have already enlisted the names of 60 percent possible polling agents of their candidates. “We’ll provide all the possible agents necessary training in 16 sessions by election experts from April 21 to April 24.”
“The ruling party will have no way to rig vote except defeating us physically or forcing us out of the polling stations with the help of the administration. We’re now mainly focusing on ensuring the presence of huge number of voters at every polling centre to check manipulation and ruling party’s terrorism,” he added.
BNP’s current spokesman Asaduzzaman Ripon said though their party-backed candidates are lagging behind ruling party-backed ones in carrying out electioneering due to adverse situation, they are not worried about it as they think voters will vent their pent-up anger against the misdeeds of the government by casting their ballots in favour of BNP-backed candidates.
Apprehending that ruling party men may try to manipulate the city polls by ‘flexing muscle’ in polling stations,
BNP is now working out various strategies, including the presence of huge voters and their strong polling agents at very centre, to check vote fraud on April 28.
Party senior leaders are highly optimistic that all the three BNP-blessed mayoral candidates in Dhaka south, Dhaka north and Chittagong city corporations will come out successful if an adequate number of voters can cast their votes peacefully as they said the ruling party has no popularity.
The BNP-led 20-party alliance has already formed two election coordination committees to oversee the overall electioneering in Dhaka city and work out strategies and action plans to ensure the victory of its Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) mayoral candidate Mirza Abbas and Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) mayoral runner Tabith Awal.
Of the two committees, one has been formed with BNP standing committee member Moudud Ahmed as its convener and party joint secretary general Barkatullah Bulu member secretary to oversee the
DNCC polls, while another constituted with BNP standing committee member ASM Hannan Shah as its convener and Gayeshwar Chandra Roy as its member secretary to monitor DSCC elections.
As Gayeshwar, also a party standing committee member, is now behind the bars, its leader Syed Moazzem Hossain Alal is discharging his responsibility as the Chief Election Organiser (CEO).
A similar committee has been formed in Chittagong with party vice chairman Abdullah Al Noman as its chief to work for 20-party blessed candidate Manjur Alam.
Besides, Adarsha Dhaka Andolan, an electoral platform of the pro-BNP professionals, is also working with the same objectives.
Talking to UNB over the city polls, BNP standing committee member Lt Gen (retd) Mahbubur Rahman said they are in doubt whether the government and the EC’s will hold the election in a free and fair manner.
“We’ve repeatedly urged the government and the Election Commission (EC) to create a level-playing field for all the candidates, but our calls have fallen on the deaf ears, putting the role of Commission into a big question,” he said.
Claiming that people and media are their main power, Mahbub said they are taking all-out preparations to thwart the government’s any plot to snatch victory of BNP-blessed candidates. “Our main target is to ensure the presence of a significant number of voters.”
Contacted, Syed Moazzem Hossain Alal said the attitudes of the government and the EC so far they have shown suggest that there is no possibility of a fair election. “But we hope the good sense will prevail upon the government and the EC to hold the city polls in a free and fair manner.”
Mentioning that the government will be the biggest loser if the polls are rigged, Alal said, “We’ll only lose polls if the ruling party resorts to manipulations. But, the government will lose its minimum credibility and acceptability with that, and our demand for a fresh election will be justified further.”
Asked what their election coordination committees are doing, Alal said they are making the lists of agents of their party backed-mayoral and councillor candidates and holding meetings with local leaders and activists to encourage the voters to go to polling stations under any circumstances.
Alal said, they have already enlisted the names of 60 percent possible polling agents of their candidates. “We’ll provide all the possible agents necessary training in 16 sessions by election experts from April 21 to April 24.”
“The ruling party will have no way to rig vote except defeating us physically or forcing us out of the polling stations with the help of the administration. We’re now mainly focusing on ensuring the presence of huge number of voters at every polling centre to check manipulation and ruling party’s terrorism,” he added.
BNP’s current spokesman Asaduzzaman Ripon said though their party-backed candidates are lagging behind ruling party-backed ones in carrying out electioneering due to adverse situation, they are not worried about it as they think voters will vent their pent-up anger against the misdeeds of the government by casting their ballots in favour of BNP-backed candidates.
