Government trying to hoodwink people by arranging polls under a project, says BNP

The BNP’s acting Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir has called the ongoing union council election ‘a farce’.

He said on Tuesday, “They are staging a farcical election. Many are saying that this is an election project. They want to deceive the people by holding the election under the project.”

His statement came hours after the beginning of voting in 717 unions in the first leg of the six-phase polls.

Fakhrul was talking to reporters after paying tribute to BNP founder Ziaur Rahman in his grave in Dhaka to mark the 28th founding anniversary of Zia Parishad.

He brought up the issue of Awami League candidates elected chairmen uncontested in over a hundred unions.

“Have you ever seen union council polls held in the past without candidates?”

He alleged ballot-stuffing in the Brahmanbarhia municipal election held on Monday.

On why the BNP joined the ‘farcical election’, he said, “We have no alternative to taking part in the polls. What can we do? We are not a revolutionary party that we will resort to other option.

“We are a democratic party. We need to join polls.”

He said the BNP is protesting against “the irregularities in vote in a democratic way by taking part” in it.

Fakhrul said a delegation of his party would go to the Election Commission to lodge a formal complaint about the irregularities.

He commented that polls would never be ‘fair’ under the present Election Commission.