Speaking to the press on Sunday, the party’s central leaders claimed that their candidates and activists were under attack and being repressed everywhere.
The ruling party was using the law-enforcement agency to stop BNP candidates from speaking to voters in the election areas and party leaders and activists had been detained, they said.
After their boycott of the 2014 parliamentary elections, BNP returned to the booths in local government polls the next year. However, in all of them except Narayanganj city corporation polls, they withdrew their candidates on the polls day alleging rigging.
In all these cases, BNP accused the EC and the law enforcement of inaction as the ruling party’s activists took over polling centres and intimidated its voters.
However, the party is now willing to let the new Election Commission demonstrate that it is capable of holding a free and fair election.
“There cannot be a free and fair election under the new EC, because the CEC is a ruling party man,” BNP Senior Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi told reporters on Sunday.
“The EC did not take any action against our complaints regarding several upazilas including Morrelganj in Bagerhat, Sujanagar in Pabna, Hossainpur in Kishoreganj, Daulatpur in Kushtia and also Rangabali in Patuakhali, which is CEC’s home area,” he said.
Rizvi alleged that law enforcement had arrested BNP’s leaders last week from election areas, including Rangabali upazila BNP President Kabir Hossain Talukdar.
Thursday, April 25, 2024
