BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir on Sunday said the party will not take part in the upcoming by-polls to four vacant parliamentary seats.
“As the elections system has completely collapsed due to the subservient role of the incompetent Election Commission and the government’s interference, we have decided not to join the by-polls to Laxmipur-2, Sylhet-3, Dhaka-14 and Cumilla-5 seats,” the BNP leader said during a press conference at BNP chairperson’s Gulshan office, reports UNB
Fakhrul also claimed the court order to free journalist Rozina Islam on conditional bail was “dictated” by the government.
Earlier in March, BNP boycotted the union parishad elections claiming it would be impossible to hold fair elections under the current government and Election Commission.
BNP also boycotted the by-polls to Bogra 1 and Jessore 6 in July last year, saying that voting amid the pandemic is unacceptable.
The party alleges that the ruling Awami League manipulated the voting in the 11th parliamentary election in 2018 as well as in the phases of the municipality polls held since. The party also accuses Awami League supporters of obstructing BNP polling agents on multiple occasions.
Following the second phase of the municipality polls in January, BNP standing committee member Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain said: “"We have information that the ruling party did not allow our polling agents to go to centres in [Saturday’s] municipal elections. They were driven out from the centres in many places.
“Awami League supporters captured polling stations with support from the administration. They resorted to the same irregularities in the municipal elections as in general elections,” he alleged.
