US, UK call for impartial investigations to charges of rigging in city votes

The US and the UK have called for impartial investigations into allegations of vote rigging, and have asked the political parties to keep their post-poll reactions within the law.

Envoys of both countries in Dhaka, in separate statements, expressed their disappointment that the BNP felt it necessary to withdraw its endorsed candidates from the City Corporation elections midway through Tuesday’s voting.
 
British High Commissioner Robert Gibson said he hoped that the BNP’s decision would not result in violence or disruption in Dhaka and Chittagong on Tuesday night and over the next few days.
 
“All parties must ensure that their response to today’s events remains within the law,” he said.
 

File Photo

File Photo

US Ambassador Marcia Stephens Bloom Bernicat in a statement said they were disappointed by “widespread, first-hand, and credible” reports of vote rigging, intimidation, and violence.

She had earlier tweeted that “winning at any cost is no victory at all”.

“It is important that irregularities be investigated transparently and impartially, and we call on all parties involved to work within the law and avoid violence at all cost,” she said in the statement.

“We condemn in the strongest terms any use of violence for political objectives.”

The voting in Dhaka South, Dhaka North and Chittagong city corporations began at 8am, and the BNP announced past noon that they had pulled out their candidates on grounds of widespread rigging.

Both the UK and US envoys visited centres at the Banani Banani Bidyaniketan School and College in the morning.

The British High Commissioner said it would be “important that all allegations of irregularity are investigated swiftly and impartially”.

He said the responsibility remained with all parties, the Election Commission, and law-enforcing agencies, to ensure that elections are held in “an ordered atmosphere to allow all voters the opportunity to exercise their democratic rights”.

“Those candidates who are successful in being elected should seek to serve the needs and wishes of all the voters in both cities,” he said in his statement.