BNP chief Khaleda Zia says municipal elections will be a 'farce'

BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia has said the Dec 30 municipal elections are going to be nothing but a 'farce'.

She said free and fair polls "cannot be expected of a feeble Election Commission".
 
She alleged the municipal election is a ‘sham’.
 
"It will be a farce in the name of an election. It's a farce," she said in a programme at her office at Gulshan on Tuesday night.
 
The BNP chief alleged that the government barred BNP candidates from filing nominations and arrested its leaders and activists "like it did before the elections to the city corporations in Dhaka and Chittagong in April".
 
The BNP boycotted the city corporation polls halfway through the voting alleging large-scale rigging.
 
Khaleda said police, along with Bangladesh Chhatra League and Juba League activists, were barring the BNP adherents from joining the municipal polls.
 
She said police were arresting the leaders and activists of her party on orders from the government.
 
She urged all to "stand up to the government's wrongdoings".
 
"It's December, the month of victory, arise and save the country. It's time to restore democracy," the BNP chief appealed to her supporters.
 
She also said she had information on how "the Awami League was conspiring to win the municipal polls".
 
The BNP organised the programme to provide Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal leaders and activists, who had been shot during protests, with financial help.