BNP rejects poll results [ Tritiyo Matra News ]

BNP rejects poll results

Local December 31, 2015

The Bangladesh Nationalist Party on Wednesday night decided to reject the results of the municipal polls for what they said ‘widespread vote rigging across the country.’
An emergency meeting of the party’s senior leaders made the decision with BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia in the chair at her Gulshan office at 9:30 pm, the party leaders said.
After the meeting that lasted for an hour, a number of leaders told New Age that the meeting decided to reject the results of the just concluded municipal polls.
The possible next course of actions, including demonstration and hartal, were also discussed in the meeting, they said.
The meeting discussed over grabbing polling centers, stuffing ballot boxes, driving out BNP polling agents by the ruling party men in connivance with law enforcers and administration officials, sources said.
BNP acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir told reporters that the media would be conveyed the meeting’s some other decisions today at 11:00am.
Earlier in the afternoon, BNP alleged that the municipal polls were marked by violence, clashes, occupation of polling centers and expulsion of opposition polling agents by the ruling party, and described it as a ‘tragedy’ and ‘farce’.
The party said vote rigging took place at over a thousand polling centers in more than 157 municipalities out of the total 234.
BNP demanded reelection in the centers where the party’s candidates registered complaints to returning officers about ‘massive irregularities’ and ‘vote rigging’.
BNP acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir at a news conference at the party chairperson’s Gulshan office around 4:15pm read out the party’s statement over the local polls.
He said the government once again held a farcical election, as part of implementing its blue prints, misusing all the state machineries.
‘What BNP had apprehended has come true,’ he said.
Fakhrul said the polls bore resemblance to elections taking place under dictators in various countries of the Middle East.
He said the incumbent government never wanted to hold a fair election sensing debacle and they would never allow fair elections as long as they want to cling to power this way.
He said there was no trace of fair election.
Fakhrul said what they saw during the whole day through the electronic media, online newspapers and social media, made them skeptic about the state of democracy in Bangladesh.
He said there was a festival of ‘occupying of polling centers—not real festivity—ballot paper stealing, kicking out of opposition polling agents and ballot box stuffing’ in favour of the ruling party candidates by their own men.
He said ‘incompetence’ of the Election Commission and its ‘firm obedience’ to the government once again destroyed the electoral process.
Fakhrul said Juba Dal leader of Sathkania Nurul Amin was shot dead on Wednesday and many leaders and activists were injured in the violence unleashed towards them during the polls.
In spite of the government’s conspiracies, he said BNP contested the polls as part of their movement to restore democracy in the country.
He said attacks by ruling party leaders and activists, cases, intimidation, vote fraud and vote obstruction had proven that the election was ‘cooked up ’.
He alleged media representatives were intimidated so that they could not cover the polls objectively.
He said for the first time a female journalist of a private TV channel was assaulted during the election coverage.