Observing that Tuesday’s city elections were very much fair, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday said this was a victory for democracy and the public, as militants and terrorists could not win the polls.
“This is the victory of democracy, this is the victory of the masses ... at least this is not the victory of militants, terrorists and those involved in subversive activities,” she said.
She made the remarks when the two mayors-elect of Dhaka North and South city corporations, Annisul Huq and Sayeed Khokon, along with their family members and some councillors-elect met with her at her official residence Ganabhaban.
Hasina mentioned there were some incidents in some polling centres, but the ratio is very insignificant. “If we consider the other elections that took place during Khaleda Zia’s regime and other regimes, these elections were very free and fair.”
About BNP’s election boycott, Hasina said it was BNP’s planned boycott. “This was very unfortunate; the voting started at 8am, without any reason they pulled out from the election, stating irregularities and rigging in the election.”
She also said in just a couple of hours, Mirza Abbas of Dhaka South got 294,291 while Tabith Awal in Dhaka North got 325,080 votes. “If there was any irregularity or rigging, how did they get such a large number of votes in just a couple of hours,” she asked.
