Dhaka, Dec 25 – Jatiya Oikya Front on Tuesday demanded the immediate resignation of Chief Election Commissioner KM Nurul Huda and urged the President to replace him with a neutral person. The alliance came up the demand hours after they walked out of a meeting with the CEC.
“This shameless, incompetent, and dysfunctional Election Commission has to be accountable to people for its failure to create an election atmosphere in the country. We demand the Chief Election Commissioner quit immediately. Or else, no minimum level of election atmosphere will be created,” said Oikya Front spokesman Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir.
Speaking at a press conference after a meeting of the alliance leaders at BNP chairperson’s Gulshan office, he said their alliance thinks the EC has to be freed from the leadership of a ‘spineless and biased’ person like Nurul Huda to ensure a free, fair and neutral election. “We demand the President to appoint a non-partisan and impartial person as the Chief Election Commissioner instantly.”
Earlier in the day Jatiya Oikya Front leaders, led by Dr Kamal Hossain, walked out of a meeting with the Election Commission, led by Nurul Huda, as they found the Commission’s attitude ‘biased and impolite’.
“We walked out of the meeting. It seems to us the Election Commission’s attitude was biased and indecorous,” BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir told reporters while emerging from the meeting with Chief Election Commissioner KM Nurul Huda and other commissioners around 1:50 pm.
Fakhrul also alleged that the government together with the Election Commission is trying to turn the election into a farce.
“We came here under the banner of Oikya Front today to inform Election Commission about the attacks and arrests of opposition leaders,” he said adding, “We informed the EC about the attacks and arrest of our leaders several times. But we didn’t get any response from them.”
Fakhrul said voters are now afraid whether they would be able to cast their votes. “How will the voters go to cast their votes if this situation remains unchanged?” he asked.
The BNP leader claimed that there is no minimum environment for election. “The government and the Election Commission are jointly trying to spoil the election,” he said.
Replying to a question about Oikya Front’s latest decision, Fakhrul Islam said people will take the decision. “But we won’t let them score any goal in an empty field,” he said.
Replying to another question about army deployment, another Oikya Front leader Nazrul Islam Khan said, “We sought army in the field of election. But the EC didn’t let the army to go in the field as they (army) are working under the EC.”
The Election Commission is trying to destroy the army’s image, Nazrul Islam Khan claimed.
A 10-member Oikya Front delegation, led by its chief Dr Kamal Hossain, did sit in a meeting with the Commission at Nirbachan Bhaban in the city around noon.
The other members include BNP General Secretary Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, senior BNP leaders Mirza Abbas, Abdul Moyeen Khan, Dr Zafrullah Chowdhury, Gayeshwar Chandra Roy, Mostofa Mohsin Montu, Subrata Chowdhury and Nazrul Islam Khan.
Election Commissioners Mahbub Talukder and Rafiqul Islam and EC Secretary Helaluddin Ahmed were also present at the meeting. – UNB
