Sajeeb Wazed Joy suggests re-election at ‘affected’ centres

Prime Minister’s ICT Affairs Adviser Sajeeb Ahmed Wazed Joy says Dhaka and Chittagong city polls saw trouble at a ‘tiny’ fraction of centres.

He also demanded re-elections in them following investigations.

“Voting went off quite peacefully today despite a few incidents. There were a total of 2700 polling centres in Dhaka and Chittagong and so far only 2 have verified reports of irregularities,” he said in a Facebook post on Tuesday.

“Media is reporting a handful more but out of 2700 that is a tiny few. The percentage of affected polling centres is even smaller than that for the five municipal polls in 2013 in which the BNP won all five.”

Votes were cancelled in three centres in the three city polls due to irregularities and violence. Other than those, there are reports of irregularities in at least 20 centres.

“The Election Commission has the responsibility of investigating and conducting re-polling in the affected polling centres if necessary.”

The BNP pulled out of the election alleging widespread rigging and irregularities.

But, Joy differed with their claim.

“We were picking up reports even before polling started that the BNP would boycott. The real reason was they expected to [lose].”

“Ours and other credible polls showed we would win at least two out of three and maybe all three.”