We find it impossible to justify the BNP’s decision to reject the city corporation polls in Dhaka and Chittagong during the early hours of voting.
This is not because we do not share the concerns it has expressed about voting irregularities.
Ample reports and evidence are available which indicate irregularities have taken place. It is imperative that these are all fairly and openly investigated by the Election Commission and that all perpetrators are held to account.
However, while the BNP is right to protest attempts to rig votes and the harassment suffered by its polling agents, it makes no sense for it to pull out of the polls on the day of the election. Not least because it has a number of candidates with substantial support and many voters may have wished to vote for them and indeed may still have done so later in the day.
To make a sudden decision to withdraw from the election on the day itself undermines the BNP’s own credibility.
The public wants to see the leading parties participate in dialogue to bring long-term stability, not intensify the damaging political deadlock. The widespread media and public interest seen in the campaigning of the last few weeks shows the people’s strong appetite for democracy.
It would have been a wiser strategy for the BNP to have continued to participate in the process and leave it to the public to decide whether the elections were flawed.