The freedom fighters, who are interested to take part in the upcoming Muktijoddha Sangsad polls scheduled to be held on October 21, expressed their apprehension of holding a free, fair and acceptable election describing the experience of the last 2010 polls.
They urged the election commission of the sangsad to ensure implementing the code of conducts properly and stop using power and public vehicles for the candidates in public service.
The possible candidates of the election on Saturday expressed their fear in a view exchange meeting with the election commission held at the ministry of liberation war affairs conference room.
Cabinet secretary Mohammad Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan, also the chief election commissioner of the sangsad, chaired the meeting while 26 possible candidates attended the discussion.
The chief election commissioner assured the candidates about holding a free and fair election. He urged the candidates to cooperate with the commission for holding the election in a fair manner as a model for the next general election.
Abdul Ahad Chowdhury, former chairman of the sangsad, urged the commission for keeping the provision of recounting the ballot papers after the result and printing all the ballot papers centrally for central, district, metropolitan and upazila command council.
He and some of the candidates also expressed apprehension on political interference in the election. They suggested the commission to refrain the ministers, MP’s and upazila chairmen from election campaigning.
Raising questions about having fake freedom fighters in the voters list, Bichchhu Jalal, the renowned freedom fighter, urged the commission to exclude such voters from the lists.
Some of the candidates including former joint secretary general Kali Narayan Nidhi, Monoranjan Ghoshal, Abdur Razzaque and Abdur Rashid suggested the commission to reschedule the date of election as the Puja and Eid Ul Adha will be observed before the election which may interrupt the election campaign.
Election commissioner Jalal Uddin Siddiqui, Shahjahan Siddiqui Bir Bikram, Fani Bhushan Chowdhury, M Abdus Salam, liberation war affairs secretary KH Masood Siddiqui and chief coordinator of the election Akram Hossain also attended the meeting.
