US visa policy has no impact on GCC polls: EC Alamgir

Staff Reporter :
Election Commissioner Md Alamgir has said the new US visa policy had nothing to do with the Gazipur City Corporation (GCC) elections held recently in a free and fair manner.

“Election preparations are made 45 days in advance. We do not know what the US visa policy as we were busy organising the elections,” the election commissioner told the media at his office in the capital on Sunday.

“Fair elections in Gazipur are not related to the visa policy. If anyone breaches election laws, whoever he is, the commission will take action,” he added.

It may be mentoned here that recently US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced a new visa policy for Bangladeshis in the interest of free, fair and peaceful national elections.

EC Alamgir said they will ensure that the voters can vote, like Gazipur, the commission will make all upcoming elections fair. “The commission will do everything possible for a fair election.”

Foreigners’ demands are not important to the commission as it works according to the constitution and the law and will continue to do so in the future, he remarked.
Regarding the delay in electronic voting machine results, he explained, “Gazipur is a big city with many candidates. As a result, it took longer time to get results.”
However, it will not take much time to get results of the parliamentary elections because there will be no councillor candidates, he said.
In response to a question whether all the parties will participate in the upcoming 12th National Parliament elections, he said, “We can not say that all parties will participate. But we will ask everyone to join.”