Jatiya Oikyafront today sought the intervention of Chief Election Commissioner KM Nurul Huda for holding an election rally in Dhaka on December 27.
Oikyafront coordinator and BNP Standing Committee Member Nazrul Islam Khan came up with the call in a letter that handed over to the CEC this afternoon.
“Dhaka Metropolitan Police did not permit us to hold the rally violating the Representation of the People Order 1972, Khan alleged in the letter.
“RPO permits us to hold such rally and it is a tradition of political parties hold a large-scale rally at the end of the election campaign, he said.
Police have denied the alliance of holding the rally after December 24 in the name of political chaos, Khan alleged.
“This is not rational. They (police) have violated the RPO indeed,” the BNP leader said.
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The United Kingdom has urged the Bangladesh authorities for a full, credible and transparent resolution of all complaints related to the conduct of the December 30 general elections.
“While I welcome the participation of all opposition parties in these elections, I am aware of credible accounts of obstacles, including arrests, that constrained or prevented campaigning by opposition parties, and of irregularities in the conduct of elections on polling day that prevented some people from voting,” said British Minister of State for Asia and the Pacific Mark Field.
He came up with the comments in a press statement yesterday following the announcement of the unofficial results for the 11th Parliamentary Elections in Bangladesh.
“I deplore the acts of intimidation and unlawful violence that have taken place during the campaign period, and am deeply concerned by the incidents that led to so many deaths on polling day. My thoughts are with the families and friends of those who have lost loved ones,” the British minister said in the statement.
Terming free, fair, peaceful, and participatory elections essential to any functioning democracy, Minister Field said, “It is vital for the government and all political parties to now work together to address differences and find a way forward in line with the interests of the people of Bangladesh”.
Mentioning that the UK has a broad and important partnership with Bangladesh, and a significant Bangladeshi diaspora in the UK, Mark Field added, “We will continue to support the people of Bangladesh in their aspirations for a more stable, prosperous, and democratic future”.
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Dhaka South City Corporation mayor Sayeed Khokon today said all the temporary election camps set up during the 11th national polls will be removed within the quickest possible time.
The Mayor said this while inaugurating removal work of makeshift election camps at Segunbagicha in the city on Saturday.
Sayeed Khokon said that earlier instruction was given to remove all election-related posters, banners, and other campaign materials within next 48 hours. Most of them were removed by this time while some are still visible in differed areas of the city, he said.
"If you see any poster, banner or festoon on flyover or in any other place then you will inform us to keep the city clean," Khokon said.
"We want to remove all the temporary election camps so that people can walk freely on pavements and we can keep our city clean," he added.
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The Jatiya Oikyafront yesterday demanded that the Election Commission immediately scrap the “farcical election” and hold a fresh one under a nonpartisan interim government.
“We reject this so-called result. At the same time, we demand fresh polls under a nonpartisan government,” Oikyafront leader Dr Kamal Hossain said at a press conference at his house in the capital.
Reading out a written statement, the eminent jurist said the news of “vote robbery” came from almost all constituencies.
Responding to a query from a journalist, BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said yesterday's election proved that free and fair polls were not possible under a partisan government.
“This also proves that our decision to boycott the parliamentary elections in 2014 was right.”
Kamal said the Oikyafront would hold a meeting today to devise its strategy. The alliance's ongoing movement “to institutionalise democracy” would continue, he added.
Apart from the Oikyafront, the Left Democratic Alliance, comprised of eight left-leaning parties, and the Ganasamhati Andolon rejected the polls and demanded a reelection.
51 BOYCOTT POLLS
As many as 49 BNP and two independent candidates boycotted polls during voting yesterday, bringing allegations of vote rigging, stuffing ballots and forcing polling agents out of centres by the ruling party men.
Other allegations include capturing of polling stations by AL men, rigging votes and barring voters from exercising their franchise.
However, the BNP didn't boycott the polls as a party.
Out of the 49 candidates, 22 are Jamaat leaders who ran on BNP's ticket.
In some districts, almost all the opposition candidates boycotted the polls. In Bagerhat, all four BNP nominees abstained from the election.
Eight out of 11 BNP candidates in Mymensingh boycotted the election. In Khulna, five out of six BNP and Oikyafront candidates opted to stay out.
Faridpur and Jhenidah saw three out of four BNP nominees boycotting the polls in each of the districts.
Jamaat leader Mia Golam Parwar, who ran on BNP's ticket in Khulna-5, first announced that he was boycotting the election over “barring voters from entering polling centres, arresting his party men and the returning officer's inaction”.
Around the same time, Shama Obayed boycotted the polls in Faridpur-2 alleging that AL men stuffed ballots in 100 out of 123 polling centres on Saturday night.
“My polling agents went to the polling centres, but they were forced to leave the centres by police and ruling party men,” the BNP nominee told The Daily Star.
Shama also said she even didn't cast her own vote in protest.
In Dhaka-1, independent candidate Salma Islam boycotted the polls around noon.
Speaking at a press conference at her house in Nababganj's Jamarkhola area, she said she stayed out of the election as it was “rigged”.
Andaleeve Rahman Partha, BNP candidate for Dhaka-17, boycotted the polls around 2:00pm citing that some 600 of his polling agents were forced out of the centres and assaulted by AL men.
JAMAAT BOYCOTTS POLLS
Meanwhile, Jamaat-e-Islami in a press statement yesterday said its leaders, who contested the polls with “sheaf of paddy”, boycotted the election.
Terming the election “a farce”, it demanded cancellation of the polls.
BNP's Mirza Abbas and his wife Afroza Abbas boycotted the polls in Dhaka-8 and 9 alleging that voters were deprived of casting their votes. The couple also refrained from exercising their franchise.
Speaking at a press conference at his Shahjahanpur home, Abbas said, “Such an election is not needed in the country in which people cannot cast their votes. We are rejecting the election result.”
Independent candidate in Kurigram-4 Imran H Sarker, also spokesperson of Ganajagaran Mancha, alleged that AL men were casting fake votes in Chilmari's Nayarhat and Astamir Char areas.
COMPLAINT LODGED WITH EC
Around noon, a BNP delegation in a written complaint informed the EC that its polling agents were obstructed from entering polling centres in 221 constituencies.
“Our polling agents are being intimidated and obstructed from entering voting stations. In some cases, they are being driven away from the polling stations or being arrested,” BNP Joint Secretary General Moazzem Hossain Alal, who led the delegation to the EC, told reporters.
He said they received the information from reliable sources. There were similar complaints from other constituencies as well, but those came from unconfirmed sources, he added.
Alal alleged that AL activists were committing irregularities with the help of law enforcers.
The BNP submitted the complaint, signed by party National Election Conducting Committee Chairman Nazrul Islam Khan, to the chief election commissioner.
Alal said voters were not being allowed to enter polling stations in many places and women were being asked to vote for AL candidates.
The party also accused the AL of stamping ballots the night before the polling day in more than half of the 299 constituencies.
“Ballots were being stamped with the help of law enforcement agencies and polling and administration officials,” the BNP said in its complaint.
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Photo:Anvil Chakma, Amran Hossain, Orchid Chakma, Sk Enamul Haq
A voter who had his national ID card talks to the presiding officer of Viqarunnisa Noon School & College polling centre yesterday after being told he was not a voter of that centre. The man despite being a local was denied at two polling centres. He eventually left without casting his vote.
A woman shows her smart national ID card at Shishubagh School polling centre in Narayanganj. 4. Voters asking a party activist for their serial numbers at Khilgaon Model College centre in Dhaka.
Voters asking a party activist for their serial numbers at Khilgaon Model College centre in Dhaka.
Alleged ruling party men storm a polling booth at the Ideal School and College centre in Motijheel but police eventually drove them away.
Along with his brother and Awami League nominee AK Abdul Momen, Finance Minister AMA Muhith goes to Durghakumar Primary School polling station in Sylhet city to vote.
Oikyafront candidate for Dhaka-8 Mirza Abbas having his blood pressure checked at his Shahjahanpur home yesterday.