Polls `festival of take-overs`: BNP

The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) has alleged that the Upazila polls have been reduced to a ‘festival’ of taking over poll centres’ by supporters of the ruling party. “Our apprehensions over the last few days have come true. It has been borne out by the rampant use of force by ruling party supporters within two hours of the start of polls,” the party’s Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi told a media briefing Thursday. Voting for 115 Upazilas started from 8am in the second phase of polls to these grass root bodies. “Ruling party supporters are snatching away ballot papers and stamping them out. They were taken aback by the opposition backed candidates’ performance in the first phase of Upazila polls and are taking no chance this time. This has become a grand-festival of forcible take-over of polling centres,” said Rizvi. Candidates loyal to the BNP had won 45 posts for chairmen in the first phase. Its ally Jamaat-e-Islami leaders had won in 12 Upazilas. Most of the vice chairmen and female vice chairmen are affiliated with the BNP-led alliance. Ruling Awami League leaders bagged 33 chairman positions while Jatiya Party managed a single seat. Rizvi alleged that polling agents of BNP-backed candidates were not allowed to enter or were chased away at polling centres in Feni, Noakhali, Chandpur, Matlab, Jessore, Cox’s Bazaar, Bhola, Barisal and Munshiganj. “All the polling stations in Munshiganj have been taken over. Former MP Abdul Hye was harassed in a polling centre.” Rizvi said large scale irregularities in Barisal led the opposition backed candidates to boycott the polls. “The Election Commission has become a slave of the government. They have been quiet despite the numerous complains of rigging. That’s why we demand them to step down,” said the BNP leader. -bdnews24.com