Gaibandha-5 by-polls proves fair elections not possible under party govt: Fakhrul
BNP Secretary-General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir on Thursday said that the Gaibandha-5 by-polls proved that holding a fair election is not possible under a party government.
"We have said this before, and now it has been proven. Therefore, it is not possible to get out of this crisis until this government that has destroyed democracy is removed and elections are held under a non-partisan government," Fakhrul told reporters at the BNP office in Thakurgaon Thursday (13 October).
He said this time, the election commission failed to hold a fair election despite using all its strength in the by-elections at a Jatiya Sangsad constituency and the failure bears a message that the election-time government is more important than the Election Commission.
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Mirza Fakhrul also said that BNP is not very interested in what happened with the elections. "BNP's only interest is to remove all those who endangered the country's democracy and then organise free and acceptable elections under a new election commission under a neutral government. And I think this is the only way to freedom."
About BNP's movement to bring down the government, Fakhrul said, "The second phase movement started in Chattogram on Wednesday. From here it will spread all over Bangladesh and this government will be forced to resign in a very short time."
The by-poll in Gaibandha-5 constituency was suspended after a slew of "rampant irregularities" including voters being forced to cast votes for certain candidates, disconnected CCTV cameras and more than one person entering the ballot booths.
In the first move of its kind seen in Bangladesh's democratic history, the Election Commission (EC) suspended voting around four hours after it began at 8:00am as the environment at polling centres "went out of control" amid allegations of vote rigging using the hotly debated electronic voting machines (EVMs).
These irregularities happened in a few polling centre which indicates that the situation might be the same in all centres, so the election commission halted the Gaibandha-5 elections, said Chief Election Commissioner Kazi Habibul Awal.
Meanwhile, a three-member probe committee has been formed in the incident of irregularities in the Gaibandha-5 by-polls that took place on Wednesday (13 October).
