A senior BNP leader has said, despite non-deployment of army, the party-backed candidate in the Narayanganj City Corporation polls, Taimur Alam Khandker, will contest for mayoral post only to expose the 'servitude' of the Election Commission to the government. "We shall participate in the polls, knowing that it will not be fair without army deployment, to unmask the commission," BNP vice president Abdullah Al Noman told reporters at the party's Naya Paltan headquarters on Saturday morning.
"Our candidates have already been informed of the decision, and we believe that this poll will unveil the government's real face to the people."
The NCC poll is set to be held on Oct 30. The vote will commence from 8am.
The EC had sought army to guard against any foul play feared by two key candidates in the Narayangang election. The army was scheduled to be posted on Friday but the force failed to carry out the EC decision.
The non-deployment has prompted an apparently embarrassed chief election commissioner ATM Shamsul Huda, who had been kept in the dark about the non-deployment, to call for an 'investigation'.
In a rushed briefing on Friday night, Noman said that the party would make its decision on whether to contend after analysing the situation if the army was not deployed by Saturday morning.
On Saturday, the BNP vice president said, "The government wants to manipulate the poll result which is why they are not deploying the army. We know that they will not allow this vote to be free and fair. On top of that, they will carry out widespread manipulations using the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs)."
Dubbing the EC as a 'puppet' body of the government, Noman said, "The CEC said that the government has violated the constitution by not deploying the army. Then we question, why are you hosting the polls?"
He also questioned why the CEC did not take any initiatives to deploy the army on a weekly holiday, Friday, when he could officially increase the number of Rapid Action Battalion and police personnel to be deployed.
"This proves that the CEC has intentionally refrained from deploying the army."
Branding the ruling Awami League-backed NCC mayoral candidate Shamim Osman as a 'godfather', the former minister claimed, "This godfather barred Khaleda Zia's [BNP chief] long march to the hill tracts near Narayanganj in 1998. They [government] are thinking that they can pull off the same trick this time also. It is not possible."
EC officials had earlier said that four army companies would be deployed at Narayanganj on Friday morning. However, 10 and half hours after the deadline, the CEC said that the army deployment would not take place.
bdnews24.com/sm/rn/jr/1337h.
Source: bdnews24.com
Read More on Ittefaq Dhaka
No comments:
Post a Comment