The main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir on Thursday said that his party had boycotted the Comilla City Corporation election as it knew what would happen there.
‘You people witnessed yesterday's [Wednesday] election. I don’t want to talk about it further…we knew this would happen. That’s why we have clearly said we will not take part in any polls under this regime,’ Fakhrul said while speaking at a meeting in Dhaka.
A faction of Bangladesh Federal Union of Journalists and Dhaka Union of Journalists arranged the discussion at the National Press Club, marking the day when all but four national newspapers were shut in 1975.
Joining the polls under this government would mean giving it more legitimacy, Fakhrul said.
Awami League mayoral candidate Arfanul Haque Rifat was declared the new mayor of Comilla City Corporation amid a chaotic situation on Wednesday.
After the largely peaceful polls, returning officer Shahedunnabi Chowdhury declared Arfanul the winner but not before a brief suspension of announcing the results at the district Shilpakala Academy.
As per the results announced by the returning officer, Arfanul defeated two-time mayor Monirul Haque Sakku by a margin of only 343 votes.
Sakku, however, turned down the election results and alleged that he was defeated in a planned way by manipulating the results of a few centres at the last moment.
BNP leader Sakku was suspended from the party for participating in the election defying the party decision.
Even though 50 years have passed since the independence of Bangladesh, the nation still could not create a system that would ensure a peaceful transfer of power, Fakhrul said.
‘When the arrangement was made for holding the election under a partisan government annulling the caretaker government system through the 15th amendment to the constitution, our leader Khaleda Zia stated that it would result in permanent violence and instability in the country,’ Fakhrul said.
He said that there was no alternative to restoring democracy in the country to protect press freedom, judiciary, administration, education and all other things.
