BNP has said that an unusually large number of voters have migrated to certain constituencies in Dhaka city and other parts of the country.
The party also demanded constituency-wise data on voter migration from the Election Commission.
BNP Standing Committee member Nazrul Islam Khan made these remarks after a meeting with Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) AMM Nasir Uddin on Sunday.
He said, “In certain areas, many new voters have been registered, which is unusual. This has never happened before. The Election Commission informed us that, after checking with its relevant department, they found that in no constituency had voter migration exceeded two to three thousand. We were not satisfied with their explanation.”
“We are certain that those who supplied information to them did not provide accurate data. In reality, voter migration has been much higher,” he added.
He also opposed the EC’s decision to involve the Bangladesh National Cadet Corps (BNCC) in election fieldwork, and said that if BNCC members are included, both they and their institution could become controversial.
Nazrul said, “We have heard that this decision has been taken for the first time in history. Perhaps it is not yet final. On behalf of our party, we informed the Election Commission that involving young students (BNCC) in such a complex political process as a parliamentary election will not be appropriate. If they are engaged in this work, they and their institution could become controversial. Therefore, it would be better not to involve them in the election process.”
He added, “If this is done, then later it may be said that scouts should also be engaged in this work. After some time, perhaps guides will also be included. We believe that only law enforcement agencies and those legally entrusted with this responsibility should be engaged in election duties. The EC acknowledged the logic of our argument and said they will discuss the matter.”
The BNP leader said, “We have learned that peace committees are to be formed in various constituencies in the name of maintaining order. The term ‘peace committee’ is very unpleasant to us, even though we are peace-loving people. The EC said they have not made any decision to form such committees.”
He also said, “We informed the EC that certain political party leaders and activists are working outside their own constituencies, in other constituencies. Although the law does not prohibit this, since they are not local, people there do not know them. Therefore, we requested that they leave those constituencies during the election or at least two days before, so that there is no opportunity for disorder in election activities.”
He said that it is a normal process that once election activities end, non-voters should not remain in those areas. The EC assured us they will take measures in this regard, he added.
“We saw on the website that the Election Commission has permitted more than a thousand local election observers. Some of the organizations are not well known, yet we saw many observers listed under their names. We have no complaint against anyone, but we asked the EC whether they had carefully considered the matter before making the decision, or whether it was done through a routine process. They said they would review the matter, since not everything is decided directly by the CEC or commissioners,” he said.
He said, “We have no objection to election observers going to polling centers, because they should see how the election is being conducted. But care should be taken so that too many observers at once do not disrupt election activities.”
