Election Commissioner Md Anwarul Islam Sarker has said that he believes that the 13th national parliamentary election and referendum has been more successful than was expected.
He said this on in response to questions from journalists at his office in the Election Building in the capita’s Agargaon on Sunday.
He said, “We think it has been more successful than expected. Overall, we are satisfied with the election.”
When asked about the oath-taking, he said, “According to Article 148 of the constitution, if the speaker or deputy speaker does not administer the oath within three days after the gazette notification of the election results, then from the fourth day, the chief election commissioner will administer the oath within the next three days. It is not possible for me to say more than this at this moment. We have not yet been officially informed about when the oath ceremony will be held.”
Regarding various complaints from the Jamaat-led 11-party alliance, Anwarul Islam said, “We have heard the statement of the 11-party alliance. But there is no question of issuing the gazette quickly. We had put in place systems to gain the trust of the people in this age of technology. In that regard, it would have been better if the gazette could have been published earlier.”
He said, “For polling centre management, we provided each presiding officer with an Ansar member armed as a bodyguard. The Ansar member had a security app. Whenever and wherever an incident occurred, through the app, the information would be instantly transmitted to our law-and-order cell. We utilised a large number of drones and helicopters in addition to bodycams. Almost every centre had CCTV arrangements. In such a situation, everything is as clear as a mirror. From here, we tried our best to monitor what was true and what was false. The Election Commission believes that we tried 100 percent to address and resolved whatever was brought to our attention.”
When asked if the EC would accept the 11-party alliance’s demand for a recount, he said, “Their demand needs to be analysed and considered. The law gives them this opportunity: if there is any election-related complaint, they can inform the High Court. The High Court can decide accordingly.”
When asked when the schedule for the Sherpur-3 constituency would be announced, EC Anwarul Islam said, “You will get these step by step. The commission has not yet decided on that matter.”
