A delegation of the Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami on Sunday met chief adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus at his official residence, Jamuna, in the capital Dhaka and raised question about the neutrality of the Election Commission.
Jamaat amir Shafiqur Rahman, nayeb-e-amir Syed Abdullah Mohammad Taher, secretary general Mia Golam Parwar, and assistant secretary general Rafiqul Islam Khan were in the delegation.
Briefing journalists after the meeting in the evening, Taher said that uncertainty over holding the 13th Jatiya Sangsad elections had been removed and the country was moving towards the much-awaited polls.
He said that Jamaat expected a free, fair and credible general election to be held on February 12.
However, Taher said, the party had recently observed ‘some dubious scenes’, prompting the meeting with the chief adviser.
He said that the Election Commission was currently finalising the scrutiny of nomination papers, but in different places candidates were being declared valid and rejected under the similar situation.
According to him, loan defaulting and dual citizenship are the two main grounds being considered in accepting or cancelling nominations, but the commission has delivered differing decisions in the similar cases.
Taher alleged that representatives of a certain political party had approached the Election Commission to put pressure on it, so that nominations that should have been cancelled due to irregularities were not rejected.
He said that the commission must not bow to any pressure and must properly enforce the electoral code of conduct.
‘Otherwise, it will be proven that this Election Commission is either weak in conducting the national elections or is biased towards a particular party,’ he said, adding that the continuation of such practice would create doubts and suspicion among voters about a free and fair election.
Taher also criticised what he described as excessive government measures in recent weeks in providing extra security and protocol to the chief of a particular political party, saying this undermined the need for a level-playing field in the election.
He said that Jamaat had no objection to enhancing security for any particular individual, but demanded equal security for the amir of Jamaat-e-Islami as well.
‘If this does not happen, the nation will label the Election Commission as biased. There will be no level-playing field,’ he said.
Taher further said that the party had received allegations of partisan behaviour by administrative officials in different areas and had asked the chief adviser to look into the matter.
He added that Jamaat reiterated its demand for installing CCTV cameras at every polling centre and also demanded that no member of any security force be stationed inside polling booths.
