The main opposition BNP, which won four city corporation elections on June 15, came up with the allegation that all the elections that took place under the Awami League government were “rigged.”
“The government has manipulated all of the elections held in its regime including union parishad, upazila and Kishoreganj by-elections; thus it has been proved that fair election under this government is impossible,” BNP standing committee member Moudud Ahmed said yesterday.
Top BNP leaders on Saturday also said the government was trying to manipulate the election results in Gazipur City Corporation in its favour.
“The government is trying to change the election results in its favour,” Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, the acting secretary general of BNP, said at a press conference at the party’s Naya Paltan headquarters yesterday afternoon.
“The Election Commission will have to take responsibility if there’s any irregularity in the polls,” he said.
Moudud Ahmed said the people would reply to the government’s bid to manipulate the Gazipur election in the national election.
He was speaking at a programme protesting the police attack on Opposition Chief Whip Zainul Abdin Farroque at the National Press Club organised by a forum named Bangladesh Unmukto Gonotantrik Parishad.
Moudud reiterated the opposition’s demand for restoring the non-party caretaker government in the constitution to hold the next general elections.
Alamgir alleged that the government-appointed officials were stamping ballot papers themselves and intimidating the voters.
He said the presiding officer and polling officers of West Joydevpur Government Primary School polling centre were manipulating votes.
The BNP acting secretary general said the voters were being supplied with torn ballot papers so that they would be cancelled during counting.
Fakhrul said on-duty police Sub Inspector Bashar at booth 7 of polling centre 249 was found voting on ballot papers. He also claimed that plainclothes police had picked up Shukur Ali, the party’s main representative at Majlishpur centre under Ward 20.
On Friday night, the police and ruling party activists had threatened voters of Ichhali and Lohakoi, he claimed.
“Just like the Kishoreganj by-polls, the government has tried to control this election,” he said.
Opposition-backed candidates won a landslide victory in last month’s city polls in Rajshahi, Khulna, Sylhet, and Barisal.
BNP-backed candidate MA Mannan has expressed his confidence that he will win if the election is free and fair.
BNP Standing Committee Member Tariqul Islam alleged that the government is trying to win the election with the cooperation of intelligence agencies.
“The people will thwart the government’s conspiracy in the Gazipur City Corporation Election,” he added at the press conference.
Tariqul also said that the opposition-backed MA Mannan would win the election by a margin of at least 100,000 votes.
MK Anwar, another BNP standing committee member, speaking to the chief election commissioner during a visit, alleged that the government was trying to change the results of the Gazipur polls.
“The consequence of changing the election results will be dreadful. Both the government and the Election Commission will have to take responsibility for this,” he said to reporters after the visit.
