Terming the Election Commission ‘worthless’, BNP MP Harunur Rashid on Tuesday demanded its resignation for its ‘failure’ to arrange fair elections.
“Both the government and the Election Commission have completely failed when it comes to election arrangement. This worthless and incompetent Election Commission should quit. Hope, they’ll relieve the nation of this situation (by quitting),” he told Parliament.
The BNP MP placed the demand taking floor on point of order in the House as the day’s session began in the afternoon with Speaker Dr Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury in the chair.
Talking about the recently-held elections to Dhaka South City Corporation and Dhaka North City Corporation, Harun said the voter turnout were only 27 percent (actually 29pc in DSCC) and 24 percent (actually 25.30 pc in DNCC) in the two city elections.
He questioned the credibility and legitimacy of the two city elections as majority people could not exercise their voting rights.
“Is there any credibility and legitimacy of the elections that witness less than one-third turnout of voters?” he said adding that there is no precedence of less than 50 percent voter turnout in any local body election of Bangladesh held in the past except the ones arranged by the incumbent Election Commission.
On February 1, the DSCC and DNCC elections were held with the use of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) in all centres. Awami League mayoral candidates-Sheikh Fazle Noor Taposh in DSCC and Atiqul Islam in DNCC – won the elections.
