BNP to join polls

Claiming that the upcoming elections to union parishads (UP) will be farcical and not credible “as experienced in ones held recently”, BNP yesterday announced that it would be contesting it, prioritising grassroots leaders' suggestions on probable candidates, as it was an election-oriented party.

“We do not want to see a repetition of the December 30 municipality polls, marred by extensive rigging, stuffing of ballots and muscle-flexing by the ruling party men,” said BNP Standing Committee Member Lt Gen (retd) Mahbubur Rahman.

He claimed that the Election Commission (EC) was “weak” and the chief election commissioner “not doing a proper job” although generally during polls, the person in the post becomes more powerful than the prime minister.

Addressing a discussion of pro-BNP Sangskritik Academy in the capital's Bangladesh Photo Journalists' Association marking the academy's 14th founding anniversary, Mahbubur urged the EC to be more assertive and to hold a free, fair and credible election.

The EC on Thursday announced that elections to 4,275 of the over 4,500 UPs, the lowest tier of the local government system, will be held, on partisan lines for the first time, in six phases starting March 22.

Meanwhile, BNP Joint Secretary General Rizvi Ahmed said their candidates would be selected by five-member committees comprising the party's respective UP unit president, general secretary and organising secretary and upazila unit president and general secretary.

Addressing a press conference at BNP's Nayapaltan headquarters to make public the party's participation, he claimed that the EC had intentionally fixed the date, along with March 20 to hold polls to 10 municipalities of nine districts, to hamper BNP's 6th national council, scheduled to be held on March 19.

Moreover, BNP Vice Chairman Abdullah Al Noman said the party would be able to hold the council successfully in 48 hours if they were permitted to use a venue.

Letters have been forwarded to the authorities concerned and BNP is yet to get permission to use the Institution of Engineers, Bangladesh; Suhrawardy Udyan and Bangabandhu International Conference Centre, he said.

Noman was addressing a discussion organised by pro-BNP Jatiyatabadi Nagorik Dal in Jatiya Press Club protesting cases filed against BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia and Senior Vice Chairman Tarique Rahman.

He said the UP polls would mean nothing to the people and BNP if there was a repetition of what happened during the ones held for the municipalities and upazilas.