The ‘confession’ of an AL leader
Chattogram's Mirsarai upazila Awami League General Secretary AKM Jahangir Bhuiyan has admitted to a series of "misdeeds" aimed at securing victory for AL candidate Mahbub ur Rahman Ruhel in the Chattogram-1 constituency during the January 7 national polls.
Then he "promised" voters that they will not interfere in the electoral process in the upcoming Mirsarai upazila polls on May 8.
Five independent candidates including General Secretary of Chattogram north district unit AL Sheikh Ataur Rahman are contesting the polls.
Speaking at an election rally of Ataur on Monday, Bhuiyan said, "We did many misdemeanours to win... We made sure Ruhel, the son of our beloved leader Engineer Mosharraf Hossain, the candidate of people's leader Sheikh Hasina, emerged victorious on January 7."
"But we will keep the polling centre free from interference on May 8," he added.
"You [voters] can come to the polling stations and vote for whoever you want. We have no objections," he assured.
The video of his speech went viral on social media.
Contacted, Gias Uddin, who contested independently against Mahbub for Chattogram-1, said, "AKM Jahangir Bhuiyan is the general secretary of Mirsarai upazila unit Awami League. I have been saying since January 7 that voters were not allowed to exercise their rights freely… all the misdeeds have been done under his leadership."
Regarding Bhuiyan's confession, Gias, a former upazila chairman and member of the executive committee of Chattogram north district unit AL, said, "I feel that he wanted to lighten the burden of the crime by confessing to the public."
Contacted, Jahangir said he came up with the statement to assure voters no irregularities will take place in the upazila polls. He said he did it to encourage the voters to exercise their rights to franchise against BNP's campaign of polls boycott.
This correspondent could not reach Ruhel for comments.
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