Free, fair polls not possible under present EC: Sujon

Sushasoner Jonno Nagarik secretary Badiul Alam Majumder on Wednesday said free and fair election was not possible under the present Election Commission.
He made the remarks at a press conference at Dhaka Reports’ Unity on recently held Rajshahi and Sylhet city elections. 
Referring to chief election commissioner KM Nurul Huda’s remark that there was no guarantee that there would be no irregularity in the next general election, Badiul Alam said there was no way of holding the free and fair polls under such a commission.
Sujon, a civil society organisation campaigning for good governance, also urged the Election Commission to take up a combined plan so that the next general elections could be acceptable to all.
He said the EC should take necessary initiatives to stop the way of ‘controlled elections’ which the nation had witnessed in recently held elections in Khulna, Gazipur, Rajshahi, Sylhet and Barisal.
He suspected that the government had a plan to engineer the election. 
The EC must ensure equal space for all the parties and there was no way to say that EC had nothing to do before announcing the schedule.
About the recent move of EC on procurement of 1.5 lakh electronic voting machines he said Sujon was not against the use of technology but it should be accepted by all the stakeholders. 
He said the EC during electoral discussion with parties and stakeholders last year said that the EVMs would not be use if that was not accepted by all.
In a written statement Sujon central coordinator Dilip Kumar Sarkar said most winning candidates in Rajshahi and Sylhet city polls were businessmen.
Sujon observed that ruling Awami League created anarchy in Rajshahi even its candidate was popular than the opposition one in the city.
It said that the AL failed to secure the Sylhet’s mayor post even after rigging the election. 
Sujon said the elections in Rajshahi, Sylhet and Barisal were held like ‘Khulna model’ but the civil rights body was yet to release any study on Barsial as the EC suspend the announcement of results of the city election as an investigation was under way.

News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net