EC, admin ready to rig Gazipur polls: BNP

BNP senior joint secretary general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi on Monday alleged that the election commission and officers of the administration have taken all preparations to set 'a new record of vote robbery' in Gazipur city polls on Tuesday.

"There is no symptom or atmosphere that the Gazipur City Corporation elections scheduled to be held tomorrow will be held in a free and fair manner," he told newsmen at the central Naya Paltan office of the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP).

The BNP leader observed that the people are anxious and panicked about if they would be able to exercise their voting rights.

"The main barrier to a fair election in Gazipur is the police and law enforcement," he said, further alleging that all the partisan policemen were deployed there.

Rizvi still expressed his optimism that the people would try to turn up at the polling stations and if the ballot is reasonably fair, the BNP's candidates would come out successful.

The BNP leader recalled that an election commission stated that incidents that took place during the elections in Khulna City Corporation would not recur.

"That means, the complaints of rigging, intimidation and arrest that were raised proved to be true, as reflected in his statement," he pointed out.

The BNP leaders alleged that many BNP leaders and workers were in Gazipur and the police and other law enforcement people conducted raids on the houses of hundreds of party leaders and workers who would have been agents or campaigners in other forms.