The Bangladesh Nationalist Party alleged that a political party was preparing for planned election engineering, preparing large numbers of burqas and niqabs to facilitate fraudulent voting.
BNP central election steering committee spokesperson Mahdi Amin on Saturday expressed the concern at a press conference at the party’s election office at Gulshan.
Mahdi claimed that the preparations were aimed at enabling fake voting, citing a recent incident in Lakshmipur in which leaders of the accused party were allegedly involved in manufacturing illegal voting seals.
The owner of a printing press arrested in connection with the incident gave a confessional statement in court, claiming that the seals were produced on the instructions of a Jamaat-e-Islami leader, he said.
Preliminary investigations, Mahadi said, have uncovered WhatsApp order details, seized materials and indications of close links with a relevant candidate.
Describing the matter as a conspiracy to influence the election, he demanded that all those involved be brought under the law.
Calling on the Election Commission, Mahdi said that an adequate number of female polling officers must be appointed in women’s voting booths at every polling centre, adding that voter identification through face verification must be strictly enforced in line with laws and regulations.
He said that the Election Commission had already issued clear instructions requiring faces to be uncovered for the identification, as is mandatory for national identity card and Hajj registration photographs.
Mahadi also said that political parties should ensure the appointment of female polling agents in women’s booths to safeguard transparency and credibility.
He claimed to have received information about preparations for printing additional ballot papers.
Referring to another incident, Mahdi said law enforcement agencies had recovered 152 cricket stumps during a raid on the home of a leader of that party in Sutrapur, Old Dhaka.
He questioned whether this indicated preparations for nationwide violence during the election, saying that increased monitoring was necessary if such risks existed.
He also raised concerns over irregularities in the appointment of election observers for the upcoming polls.
As an example, he cited that the People’s Association for Social Advancement, a nominal organisation that had been approved to deploy the highest number of observers.
Of the total 55,454 domestic observers, PASA alone has been approved for 10,559 observers, he said.
He claimed that the organisation’s so-called office consisted of a single room at a village home in Habiganj, with only one staff member, information that has already been reported in the media.
Mahdi reminded that the BNP had previously informed the Election Commission that several observer organisations had links to a particular political party, adding that such issues posed obstacles to holding a fair election.
At the same press conference, Mahdi announced that BNP chairman Tarique Rahman would take part in a total of 14 public rallies across Dhaka North and South over two days, addressing gatherings on Sunday and Monday.
