Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal, the student wing of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, staged a sit-in programme again in front of the Election Commission Bhaban in the Dhaka city on Monday, questioning the commission’s neutrality ahead of the next general election scheduled for February 12.
The sit-in programme rolled into the second consecutive days for pressing their three demands — stopping the manipulation of postal ballots for Bangladeshi expatriates living abroad, cancelling what they described as an unprecedented gazette notification issued by the commission to hold Shahjalal University of Science and Technology students’ union polls before the general election under pressure from a student body of a particular political party, and refraining from partisan activities of the commission under pressure from a specific political party.
Several thousand leaders and activists blocked roads near EC Bhaban demanding free, fair and credible elections.
They started their road block programme at about 11:00am and continued till filing the report at about 4:00pm.
On Sunday, they held a sit-in programme from 10:00am to 8:00pm, and withdrew the blockade after getting assurance from the EC to accept their demands.
Addressing the sit-in, JCD Jagannath University unit convenor Mehedi Hasan Himel said that the Election Commission failed to ensure neutrality.
‘Some coordinators and some student bodies aligned with fascist Awami League’s student body by hiding their identities, are now trying to foil the election,’ he said.
