The incident of attack on Ashraful Hossen alias Hero Alom, an independent candidate of Dhaka-17 by-poll, has come up in the briefing of the US Department of State on Monday.
Voting to the Dhaka-17 by-poll held on Monday.
However, around an hour prior to the end of the voting, some people wearing 'Boat' symbol badges assaulted Hero Alom. Afterwards, they chased him out of the area. There were some policemen at the place of the assault. However, they did not do anything to protect Hero Alom.
According to the unofficial result, Awami League-nominated candidate Muhammad Ali Arafat won the Dhaka-17 by-poll with 28,816 votes. Arafat’s nearest rival, independent candidate Ashraful Hossen Alom, popularly known as Hero Alom, with his "Ektara" symbol secured 5,609 votes.
The rate of casting in the by-poll was 11.51 per cent. A total of eight candidates contested in the by-poll. The BNP didn’t take part in the election.
The issue of the attack on Hero Alom came up during the press conference of the US Department of State.
A newsperson said, “I have two questions on Bangladesh."
Before going to direct question, the newsperson mentioned after the return of US under secretary Zeya, the Bangladesh regime is back to the culture of attacking opposition parties. There was a by-election yesterday. The main opposition boycotted the election. Despite that, an independent candidate (Hero Alom) came under attack. He’s in hospital now. Besides, less than 10 per cent of votes were casted.
So how could you believe that prime minister Sheikh Hasina will ensure a free, fair election as the 2014 and 2018 elections were not free and fair. Even this by-election was not free and fair and candidates were assaulted.
So what is your position on that? Are you following this?
In response, US State Department spokesperson Mathew Miller said, “I would say that this type of political violence has no place in democratic elections. We encourage the Government of Bangladesh to investigate any reports of violence thoroughly, transparently, and impartially, and to hold the perpetrators of violence to account."
“And I would say, as we have said before, that we would expect the Government of Bangladesh to hold free and fair elections, and we continue to monitor it closely,” Miller added.
In the second question, the newspersons said, “And, last Wednesday, one of the opposition activists protested in front of a visiting ruling Awami League MP. Within a few hours of that his family came under attack back home in Bangladesh. The ruling party activists even went live on Facebook during vandalising their house. They are attacking the families of the expatriates who are raising voices outside the country. So if someone is talking from the US or protesting or arguing with the ruling party here, their families in the country are not safe then.
So what is your view on that?
Miller said, “I would just say, again, that that type of violence that you mentioned has no place in democratic elections.”