BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia on Friday informed US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Wendy Sherman about the ‘vote fraud’ in Tuesday’s elections to three major city corporations and provided her with documents in this regard. The BNP chief at a meeting at her Gulshan residence with the visiting US under-secretary narrated how Awami League ‘manipulated’ the polls. Before leaving Dhaka, Wendy Sherman went to Khaleda residence around 4:27pm and held nearly a half an hour meeting with her. Briefing reporters after the meeting, BNP standing committee member Dr Abdul Moyeen Khan said issues relating to city polls, Bangladesh’s latest political situation and the country’s socio-economic situation came up for discussions at the parley. He said the BNP chief projected the country’s political situation, the government’s repressive acts, vote rigging in the city polls, sacking of opposition-backed elected representatives from different local government bodies, repression on the opposition leaders and activists and filing of ‘false’ cases against them. Khaleda also provided the US undersecretary with various documents and footage on the issues, he added. Apart from Moyeen Khan, BNP chief’s advisers Reaz Rahman, Sabihuddin Ahmed and US Ambassador Marcia Stephens Bloom Bernicat were present at the meeting. Asked what Wendy Sherman told them about the city polls, Moyeen Khan declined to make any comment. “We don’t want to say anything about it. The US has already voiced its concern over the elections. –UNB, Dhaka.
