AL's proposal not conducive to fair polls: BNP

Senior Correspondent: Terming unsupportive the Awami League’s 11-point proposal placed before the Election Commission (EC) for fair polls, BNP thinks those are framed with a trick to control the election and manipulate its results and not conducive to democracy and fair polls.

BNP Senior Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi came up with the comment while speaking at a press conference at the party’s Nayapaltan central office in the capital on Friday.

“Awami-League’s proposals are not conducive to democracy and a fair election. The proposals were made with a trick to control the election, the media, and election observers and to manipulate the results which completely go against public opinion,” he said.

On Wednesday, Awami League placed an 11-point proposal, including introduction of the use of electronic voting machines (EVMs), for holding the next general election in a credible manner.

During a dialogue with the Election Commission, the ruling party also proposed submission of the list of polling agents to presiding officers, and assistant presiding officers three days before the polling day and appointing presiding and assistant presiding officers only from government officials.

Rizvi said their party thinks the Prime Minister herself is the major barrier to the election. “People want the election to be held under a non-party neutral administration. In their dialogue, Awami couldn’t send out a good message to people as they opposed the election-time neutral government.”

He urged the EC to take proper steps for holding a credible and competitive election with the participation of all parties.

The BNP leader warned that it will be tantamount to betraying people if the EC arranges another Januray-5, 2014 like general election.

Rizvi also said AL doesn’t want army to be deployed with magistracy power as the party has an intention to resort to violence, and terrorism and snatch ballot boxes during the polls. “It won’t be possible to contain terrorism during voting without giving army the magistracy power.”

risingbd/Dhaka/Oct 20, 2017/Reza/Amirul