The BNP has expressed dissatisfaction over the atmosphere of elections to the Rajshahi, Sylhet and Barishal city corporations on the eve of voting at a meeting with the chief election commissioner.
BNP Joint Secretary General Mahbub Uddin Khokon and International Affairs Secretary Kayser Kamal met CEC Nurul Huda at the commission in Dhaka on Sunday with a slew of allegations by the party candidates in the backdrop.
Election commissioners Shahadat Hossain Chowdhury and Mahbub Talukdar were also present.
“There is no atmosphere for fair elections in the three cities. This happened because the EC did not take any visible steps despite its wish to do so,” Khokon told the media after the meeting.
BNP leaders have been describing the EC as ‘subservient to the government’. The candidates of the party are pointing finger mainly at the police and officials of local administrations for not helping ensure fair elections.
They allege arrest and harassment of their supporters despite court orders to not do so.
Khokon said they do not feel reassured by the EC’s promise to take all sorts of action for fair election as demanded by the BNP.
The police were emboldened by the absence of action in the part of the commission to go ahead and arrest BNP supporters, he claimed.