BNP calls shutdown for Sunday over alleged irregularities in city polls

The BNP has called a shutdown in Dhaka for Sunday citing electoral fraud as Awami League candidates have taken an early lead in the mayoral race.

Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir announced the decision from an impromptu media briefing at the party’s Naya Paltan headquarters on Saturday after the daylong polling.

“We fully reject this election. In protest, we will enforce the dawn-to-dusk shutdown on Sunday,” he said, calling the first harshest form of protest by the party in five years.

When Mirza Fakhrul announced the decision, Awami League candidates Sheikh Fazle Noor Taposh and Atiqul Islam were leading their BNP rivals Ishraque Hossain and Tabith Awal by huge margins.

The BNP alleged its agents were driven out of the polling stations while its supporters were being barred from casting their ballots.

The turnout has been very low with Chief Election Commissioner KM Nurul Huda predicting it to be less than 30 percent.

There were no reports of major violence during the voting, but many alleged intimidation.

Mirza Fakhrul alleged “horrific” vote rigging, forgery and intimidation.

The ruling Awami League has “trampled the people’s mandate and robbed them of their mandate”, he claimed.

“We strongly condemn it,” the BNP leader said, urging the residents of the capital to join the shutdown peacefully “to establish democracy”.

Ambulances, hearses, pharmacies and food shops will be exempt from the shutdown, he said.

FIRST IN FIVE YEARS

It is the first shutdown called by the opposition party after it had faced widespread criticism for deadly protests for months in early 2015.

Its leaders, including Chairperson Khaleda Zia, were accused of instigating violence in a number of cases over fire-bombing of vehicles during the protests. She was jailed in corruption cases in 2018.

Mirza Fakhrul had admitted only two weeks ago that the violent boycott of the 2014 elections and the movement on its first anniversary following “thoughtless” decisions caused the party a huge damage.

“We are still struggling to make up the lost ground,” he had said.

AL TO ‘RESIST SHUTDOWN’

The Awami League says it will be out on the streets to deal with the shutdown.

Mahbub-Ul Alam Hanif, a joint general secretary, condemned the BNP for calling the protest programme “even after its candidates made no allegations of vote rigging”.

The BNP has exposed its political bankruptcy by hastily calling this shutdown fearing a debacle, he told a news conference at Atiqul’s campaign office in Banani.

The people “will reject” the call for any programme that goes against their interests, he said.