BNP questions govt not challenging HC stay on Dhaka North polls

The BNP considers the State’s ‘silence’ as a ‘proof of government-Election Commission collusion’ in getting the Dhaka North City Corporation elections halted by the High Court.

Speaking at a programme at the National Press Club in Dhaka on Friday, BNP Standing Committee Member Moudud Ahmed said the State would have challenged the High Court decision in the Appellate Division had the government wanted the vote to go ahead.

“The High Court order would itself be stayed in that case and the elections would be held,” Moudud said.

“But now they (State) have held themselves back, giving the impression that the stay is a permanent matter and it cannot be challenged.”

“This proves that the government and the Election Commission acted in collusion to stop the polls…They did it after sensing defeat,” he added.

Moudud, a Supreme Court lawyer and former law minister, also questioned Attorney General Mahbubey Alam’s absence at the hearing.

“It means the government wanted the polls to be halted. That’s why the attorney general did not attend the hearing,” he said.

BNP’s coalition partner Jatiya Ganatantrik Party’s student front Chhatra League organised the programme, its National Council. 

Jagpa President Saiful Alam Prodhan was also present.

Earlier in the morning, BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir also said the EC and the government acted in league to have the DNCC polls stayed.

Asked why a BNP-backed union council chairman filed the writ petition challenging the polls schedule, Mirza Fakhrul said, “It’s not important who filed the writ petition. The main thing is the union councils, which were added to the city corporations, were not demarcated; the voter roll of these areas was not published.”

He blamed the EC and the law ministry for not demarcating the new areas and readying the voter list.

He was speaking to reporters after placing a wreath on party founder Ziaur Rahman’s grave in Sher-e-Bangla Nagar, marking Zia’s birth anniversary.

Awami League leader Hasan Mahmud, however, alleged it was the BNP which ‘conspired to stop the polls’.

“The BNP has failed to emerge from politics of negativity. The High Court has stayed the elections following a BNP leader’s writ petition. Actually, the elections have been stayed due to the BNP’s conspiracy,” he told a discussion at the National Press Club.

The Election Commission had announced the schedule of the mayoral bypolls to Dhaka North and elections to 36 new wards of the two Dhaka city corporations with the balloting slated for Feb 26.

The High Court halted the mayoral bypolls and the elections to the 18 new wards of Dhaka North on Wednesday and the 18 new wards of Dhaka South on Thursday for three months.

It asked why the announcement of the schedule should not be declared beyond the legal purview of the commission as it could not publish the voter roll and demarcate the new wards before the Jan 18 deadline for filing nominations.