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DHAKA: The 11-party alliance has warned that it will intensify its movement across the country if Thursday’s by-election to the Thakurgaon-1 constituency is not held fairly.
AHM Hamidur Rahman Azad, assistant secretary-general of Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami and coordinator of the 11-party alliance, issued the warning after a meeting with Chief Election Commissioner AMM Nasir Uddin on Wednesday.
Azad said the meeting discussed the by-election and upcoming local government elections. He said the alliance had previously raised several complaints with the Election Commission over the by-election.
Although the commission had taken action on some issues, it had failed to address the major allegations, he said.
“The Election Commission has assured us at today’s meeting. But if those assurances do not match the reality on the ground during tomorrow’s voting, we will consider them an eyewash,” Azad said.
Describing Thursday’s election as a test for the commission, he said he hoped it would be able to discharge its duties independently.
“If the Election Commission fails in this regard, the ongoing movement of the 11-party alliance will be intensified, and the movement will spread across the country,” he warned.
Azad said the alliance had placed four demands before the commission: deployment of army personnel in the Thakurgaon-1 by-election; withdrawal of the upazila nirbahi officer of Thakurgaon Sadar and a departmental investigation against the official; appropriate action over all violations of the electoral code of conduct; and installation of CCTV cameras at polling centres, with central monitoring of the footage.