‘Quitting election to depend on situation’
Staff Reporter :
If most of the people think that the 12th parliamentary elections are not taking place in a free and fair manner then the Jatiya Party (JaPa) will decide on remaining in the poll race.
Meanwhile, five more candidates nominated by the JaPa for the forthcoming national elections have announced quitting the electoral race citing various reasons on Wednesday.
They are Abdul Mannan Talukder, nominated for Sunamganj-1 (Tahirpur, Jamalganj, Dharmapasha, Madhyanagar) constituency; Shankar Paul for Habiganj-2 (Baniachong, Ajmiriganj), Mahbub Alam for Dinajpur-2 (Biral, Bochaganj), Jahirul Islam for Tangail-7 (Mirzapur) and Advocate Rabiul Islam from Chuadanga-2 constituency.
The JaPa candidates those who withdrew candidatures earliere are-Niaz Uddin from Gazipur-1 and Gazipur-5 constituencies, Iqbal Hossain Tapas from Barisal-2 and Barisal-5 constituencies, Khalilur Rahman from Barguna-1 constituency, Sohrab Hossain from Chuadanga-1 constituency, Sirajganj-3 (Raiganj-Tarash) Zakir Hossain, freedom fighter Shamsuddin Khan Gazipur-4 and Alauddin Mridha Natore-4 constituencies.
With the five, a total of 12 candidates of the opposition in incumbent 11th parliament quit the electoral race since the beginning of electioneering on 18 December. “The withdrawal of candidature may be due to threats or it may also be due to lack of money. JaPa will be in the election until the last hours but anything may happen anytime,” GM Quader, chairman of JaPa told reporters while answering to a question in Rangpur on Wednesday.
Replying to another query regarding quitting the election race, he replied, “Our voters are skeptical about holding the fair elections. So, we have to consider their emotion. If something exceptional happens, we will take a decision after considering the overall situation.”
Regarding the election environment, he said that the election environment cannot be said to be too bad.
“We can’t dismissed the panic prevailing among the voters. The Election Commission is saying that the voting environment still congenial. We have confidence in the EC and let’s see what happens at the end,” GM Quader said.
However, some of the candidates spoke about lacking in cooperation of the party’s central leaders while some cited their suspicion about a fair election and different types of pressure and threat as reasons for quitting the fray.
Candidate from Habiganj-2 constituency, Shankar Paul, alleged that they are not getting cooperation and announced quitting the election through a video message.
The party’s candidate from Dinajpur-2 constituency, Mahbub Alam, cited his suspicion about the fairness of the election as reason for quitting the electoral race.
“I’m in doubt about how neutral the voting process, counting and result announcement would be,” he said while addressing a press conference at Biral upazila Jatiya Party office on Tuesday afternoon.
“Current political situation in Bangladesh is murky. There are various types of pressure on me and neither do I have physical or mental strength to face this situation. There are threats as well. Overall, I as a candidate of ‘plough’ have decided to quit the race since there is no scope to withdraw candidature,” he said.
Earlier on Sunday, three candidates of Jatiya Party quit the race alleging “mockery, seat sharing and one sided” nature of the parliamentary election.
