Jamaat-e-Islami secretary general Mia Golam Parwar has said his party will not rig votes or commit fraud, and will not let anyone else do so. He urged party leaders, activists and supporters to surround polling centres if anyone tries irregularities there in the by-election for the Thakurgaon-1 seat.
He was speaking at an election rally organised by Thakurgaon district Jamaat at the Zilla School ground on Saturday (24 October) afternoon. He also warned that his party would besiege the election office and stage a sit-in if there were delaying tactics over the election.
“If any presiding officer at a polling centre helps stamp ballots, or if during the count paddy-sheaf ballots are counted in the bundle for the scales, the centre must be surrounded,” Mia Golam Parwar said. “The presiding officer must be tied up with rope so he cannot run away.” The scales is Jamaat’s election symbol and the sheaf of paddy the BNP’s.
“Our message is clear: voters must be able to vote without fear. We will not rig votes, we will not commit fraud, and we will not let anyone else do it,” he said.
Criticising the BNP government, the Jamaat leader said: “The BNP has not been able to end people’s suffering. Farmers in the north are suffering from a fertiliser shortage, and their hardship has grown for lack of fertiliser. BNP leaders, activists and relatives have been appointed fertiliser dealers.” He alleged that bribes of Tk 10 lakh to 12 lakh had been taken for each dealership.
“In just eight months the BNP government is in a mess. They have lost their heads. In their fever, they now call their sister-in-law mother,” Mia Golam Parwar said, using a Bengali saying for confusion. He alleged that the BNP has set up a marketplace of looting across the country.
Warning the government, he said: “The government should not land itself in trouble trying to take one seat, as in 1994.”
Also speaking at the rally, Dhaka University Central Students’ Union (DUCSU) vice-president Sadik Kayem said: “It has been shown that development is possible even from the opposition. Without government allocations, there has been more development than in the 105-year history of Dhaka University.”
The rally was chaired by Thakurgaon district Jamaat ameer Belal Uddin. Other speakers included Islami Chhatra Shibir secretary general Shigbatullah Sigba, Jamaat assistant secretary Halim Uddin, and Delawar Hossain, the 11-party alliance’s candidate in the Thakurgaon-1 by-election.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report