BNP has alleged that in the postal ballots sent for expatriate voters in the 13th national parliamentary election, the names and symbols of political parties have been arranged in a deliberately motivated manner.
After meeting with the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) AMM Nasir Uddin on Tuesday afternoon, BNP Standing Committee member and Election Conduct Committee Chairman Nazrul Islam Khan made this allegation.
He said, “In the ballot paper sent for expatriates, the names and symbols of a few political parties have been placed on the first line very deliberately. However, BNP’s name and symbol have been placed right in the middle. When folded, it will not even be properly visible. We have spoken with the EC about this. From their words, it seems the EC did not properly notice the matter. Whether it is alphabetically correct was their consideration. But we told them that you have made five columns here and 14 lines. As a result, the names and symbols of three specific political parties have ended up on the first line. If it were not five but six columns or four columns, and if it were 12 or 16 lines instead of 14, then arranging in this way would not have been possible. Therefore, the matter has been done intentionally, and perhaps you did not notice it. But those who did the work from inside, likely had some purpose in doing this.”
He said, “We have requested the EC to correct the ballot papers sent abroad if there is time. And to fix the postal ballots that will be sent within the country which have not been sent yet. We have clearly told them that this strategy should not be applied to the postal ballots within the country. It should be corrected.”
Pointing out that the method of distributing postal ballots to various places around the world is not being done correctly, he said, “There are some faults in this. We have seen that in Bahrain, leaders of a specific political party are handling many ballot papers. This has been published in video on social media. They (the EC) said this has come to their notice and they have contacted the ambassador in Bahrain. They will investigate this matter further, give a report, and take measures accordingly.”
