Observers find no evidence of vote rigging in city polls: Quader

Ruling Bangladesh Awami League general secretary Obaidul Quader on Wednesday said observers did not find any evidence of vote rigging or forgery in the elections to two Dhaka city corporations recently held, reports BSS.
“The election observers did not find any evidence of vote rigging or forgery in the city elections and even they did not say anything in this regard,” he said while briefing newsmen at the secretariat after a meeting of his ministry.
Quader, also road transport and bridges minister, said the city elections were held in a free and fair manner but some people cannot accept the polls results if they faced defeat in the elections.

Praising the use of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) in the polls, he said there is no way of rigging votes through EVM in elections. "As the Bangladesh Nationalist Party faced a defeat in the city elections, the party rejected the polls results raising allegation of vote rigging."

About BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir’s call for re-elections to the two city corporations, Quader said: “I don't know why Mirza Fakhrul was so angry. As the BNP secretary general, Fakhrul himself failed to perform well and that’s why he demanded cancelation of the election results and re-elections to the two Dhaka city corporations.”

Awami League mayoral candidates Atiqul Islam and Sheikh Fazle Noor Taposh were unofficially declared elected in the Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) and Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) elections respectively held on 1 February.