BNP confident of securing two-thirds majority

The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) on Thursday expressed confidence that it would form the government by securing more than two-thirds of the seats in the 13th parliamentary election.

Dr Mahdi Amin, spokesperson for the party's central election management committee, made the statement at a press conference at the BNP election office at Gulshan in the city.

He said BNP Chairman Tarique Rahman had already been unofficially declared elected in his two constituencies -- Bogura-6 and Dhaka-17.

He also alleged that since Wednesday night, their political opponents had been involved in various irregularities, including vote rigging, fraud and capturing of polling centres.

Despite this, Dr Mahdi said, BNP candidates contesting with the party's electoral symbol, the 'Sheaf of Paddy', were leading by large margins in many constituencies due to strong public support.

Many of them have already been unofficially declared elected, he added.

The party is confident that, with the people's backing, it would secure more than two-thirds of the seats and form the government, said the BNP spokesperson.

"Our confidence is based on the votes counted so far and detailed seat-wise information," he said.

He also claimed that incidents of irregularities, fraud and violence took place in different parts of the country on the election day.

According to him, 'election engineering' was carried out in some constituencies to ensure the victory of certain candidates.

He cited delays in vote counting and the announcement of results in several Dhaka constituencies, including Dhaka-8, Dhaka-11, Dhaka-13 and Dhaka-16, as grounds for such suspicion.

The BNP spokesperson further alleged that a particular political party had violated election rules and spread propaganda to reduce the margin of BNP's expected victory.

BNP Chairman Tarique Rahman on Thursday expressed hope about his party's victory in the 13th general election.

He made the remark while speaking to journalists in front of the BNP chairperson's office in the capital's Gulshan around 1:20pm.

Earlier, he visited several areas in the capital, including the Adamjee Cantonment Public School centre, Mohakhali, Panthapath, Bhashantek, Manik Mia Avenue, Dhanmondi Road 27, Sobhanbagh, and Banani.

He cast his vote, along with his family members, at the Gulshan Model High School and College centre at 9:40am.

At the Gulshan office, he said many residents had returned to their hometowns by launches, steamers, trains, and buses over the past two days to vote in the elections.

"We expect this enthusiasm to continue today," he said.

When asked how many seats he expected the BNP to win, he replied, "We expect to win enough seats to run the country properly and smoothly."

Tarique said the BNP wanted to form a government together with the parties that joined the movement with it.

"We want to work together with all of them to run the country," he said.

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