Jayeda Khatun, Jahangir Alam satisfied with electoral environment so far

Jahangir Alam, former mayor and chief coordinator of independent mayoral candidate Jayeda Khatun’s election campaign, has said that the voting in the election to Gazipur City Corporation (GCC) has been fair so far.

“We hope the situation remains the same till the end. There should not be any tampering with the close circuit cameras and the electronic voting machines (EVMs),” he said on Thursday.

Independent mayoral candidate Jayeda Khatun cast her vote at the Kanaiya Government School polling centre in ward no. 30 at around 10:00 am. Former GCC Mayor Zahangir Alam also cast his vote at the same time at the same centre.

Speaking to the newspersons after casting his vote, Jahangir Alam said, “Voting is underway in a total of 480 polling centres. Efforts are on to oust our agents from some of the polling booths. However, it doesn’t matter. The people of the city are united to vote for my mother.”

He further said, “We will see till the end whether the government and the election commission (EC) can keep their words of holding a fair and neutral election or not. We will be in the field till the end to see whether there has been any incident of vote rigging or not. If the election remains fair till the end, we will welcome the result and thank everyone for holding such an election. The citizens of Gazipur will not accept the election in case of any irregularity.”

“We are satisfied with the voting so far. I am urging the voters to come to polling centres and cast their votes. This is your city and you are the main force of the election.  Let not any force spoil the election. If people are united, nobody will be able to affect the polls.”

Speaking regarding the polling agents, Jahangir Alam said, “They intimidated our polling agents last night. However, it does not matter. All of our agents have gone to their respective polling centres. They (ruling party activists) tried to oust our agents in some centres, but couldn’t stop them. This happened in some places in Tongi. We are collecting more information in this regard.”

Jahangir’s mother and independent mayoral candidate Jayeda Khatun said, “I am hopeful of my victory in the polls. I am urging all the voters to come to the polling centres and cast their votes. I have no objection with EVM. The electoral environment has been good so far. I have no objection in this regard.”