Election commissioner Mahbub Talukdar on Friday alleged that the chief election commissioner KM Nurul Huda had chosen a vile way against him by mentioning the matter of taking treatment cost from the election commission to make his vindictive motive successful.
In a statement, he said that the CEC, like him, also took money from the commission for treatment.
‘As an election commissioner it is my fundamental right to get appropriate treatment for sickness,’ he said in a statement sent to the media on the day.
‘I am still alive for treatment,’ he said.
‘The Chief election commissioner has chosen this vile way against me by mentioning the matter of treatment to make his vindictive motive successful for my different position on the polls,’ he said.
The CEC at a programme on Thursday, speaking about Mahbub Talukdar’s criticism about the commission’s activities, said that the commission spent about Tk 40 lakh for the treatment of Mahbub Talukdar.
‘But he [Mahbub Talukdar] continued making controversial comments about the Election Commission,’ the CEC added.
In the statement, Mahbub Talukdar said that the chief election commissioner on January 27 did not give the actual treatment cost for him.
‘Actually, since I started working as election commissioner, I have had Prostate cancer,’ he said and added that he got treatment in Singapore and Chennai in India as the cancer spread in his body.
A medical board consisting of four physicians from Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University Hospital gave him approval for treatment after two-phase physical check-up, he said.
‘My treatment expenditure was being spent following the treatment rules for the election commissioners. But in the last two years, I did not go abroad for treatment using government funds,’ he said.
The commissioner said that he went to the United States in the last two years for treatment by bearing all expenses by himself.
‘All the present election commissioners and retired election commissioners get treatment cost from the commission as per availability and rules,’ he said, adding, ‘KM Nurul Huda also took money from election commission for treatment.’
