TIB published report in favour of BNP-Jamaat: Minister

Information Minister Dr Hasan Mahmud today said the report published by Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) on the 11th parliamentary election is deliberately “falsified, which is in favour of the BNP-Jamaat quarter”.

“There is no difference between the report of TIB and the speech of Oikyafront. In fact, TIB just published a report in favour of BNP and Jamaat-Shibir,” the minister said during a press briefing at his residence at Dewanji Pukur Par lane in Chattogram city.

EC bins TIB report on polls

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Though TIB usually claim their reports as research findings, no valid research has actually been done so far, rather the reports were deliberate, falsified and biased, the minister claimed.

“They wrote fables about Padma Bridge and published reports against the country. But it was later proven that no corruption took place centring the bridge construction,” Hasan Mahmud said.

The minister added that he would ask TIB officials to work for the welfare of the country rather than defaming the country’s name by publishing “false” reports.

TIB, the Bangladesh chapter of global anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International, in a report titled “Review of Election Process of 11th National Election” on Tuesday said that they found wide range of election irregularities in 47 out of 50 parliamentary constituencies over which the study was conducted.

The irregularities include stamping ballot papers the night before the polls, ballot stuffing by capturing booths on the day of election, passive role of law enforcers and administrative officials, casting of fake votes, barring voters from going to polling stations, forcing voters to cast vote for a specific symbol and barring polling agents of opposition parties from going to centres.

What did the TIB report say? 

Electoral irregularities like stamping ballot papers the night before the polls and ballot stuffing by capturing booths on the election day took place in 47 out of 50 constituencies surveyed, says the TIB study on the 11th parliamentary polls unveiled through a press conference at its office in the capital yesterday.

Other irregularities include silence of law enforcers and administrative officials, casting fake votes, barring voters from going to polling stations, forcing voters to cast vote for a specific symbol and barring polling agents from going to centres, the study found.

It termed the election "partially participatory, non-competitive, questionable and faulty" and demanded judicial inquiry into the reported irregularities during the election.

The study also found that average election-related expenditure of a candidate was Tk 77,65,085 in those seats, three times the amount fixed by the Election Commission.

A candidate can spend maximum Tk 25 lakh in electioneering, according to the EC.

According to the study, it was found that AL candidates violated election code of conduct more than others.

The study, based on interviews of election stakeholders including law enforcement agencies, candidates and voters, was conducted between November 10 last year and January 10 this year in randomly selected 50 out of 299 constituencies that went to polls on December 30.

What did the EC say? 

The Election Commission yesterday trashed the report of Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) on the 11th parliamentary election, terming it as a “predefined and imaginary statement”.

“TIB’s report is not an outcome of research work, rather it is a report only. It is totally a predefined and imaginary report,” Election Commissioner Rafiqul Islam came up with the remarks while talking to reporters at the commission office in Dhaka.

Rejecting the report, Rafiqul Islam said, “TIB did not appropriately follow the methods required for preparing a survey report and thus it is nothing but an imaginary creating.”

Apart from this, it is said in the report that this is their primary report that means it is “predefined”, the election commissioner said.

Claiming that information must be collected from assistant presiding officers or from written documents if anyone wants to prepare a survey to report on the election, Rafiqul Islam said, “TIB did not do these.”

“TIB did not mention in the report from which sources it gained the information about the ballot stuffing on the night before the polls. So that, it was not a survey indeed,” the commissioner added.