Oikya Front walks out of EC meeting, wants CEC to quit

Jatiya Oikya Front (JOF) demanded on Tuesday resignation of Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) KM Nurul Huda for the sake of holding a free, fair and participatory election.

Instead, the new political alliance requested the President to urgently appoint a new CEC who would not be biased towards any quarter.

The JOF's demand came four days before the 11th parliamentary elections on December 30.

On behalf of the JOF, BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir made the demand at a press briefing following an emergency meeting with alliance leaders at BNP's Gulshan office in the city.

The emergency meeting followed an earlier meeting with the CEC which the JOF leaders walked out of citing indecent behaviour.

"Fair election is not possible under this CEC, who even does not know how to behave neutrally. So, we demand his resignation for the sake of a fair election," he said.

Mr Alamgir pleaded the President to replace the CEC with a neutral person for better arrangement of the polls.

He said the government and the Election Commission had been working jointly to make it a mockery of election through vitiating a congenial atmosphere.

Earlier on the day, the JOF leaders walked out of a meeting with the chief election commissioner (CEC), citing the latter's 'indecent behaviour' towards them.

A 10-member team of the new political alliance, led by its convener Dr Kamal Hossain, went to the Election Commission (EC) at noon to complain about police's strong stance against their leaders and activists across the country ahead of the general election.

But after two hours, the opposition delegation stepped out of the meeting about 2:00 pm and held a press conference at the commission's media centre where they expressed their dissatisfaction about the commission's behaviour towards them.

Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, Secretary General of BNP, a key partner of the alliance, alleged that the government and the EC were working together to foil the election and try to make a mockery of it.

"The EC has become an entity of the government and its behaviour was indecent. That's why we boycotted the meeting. But we'll not allow anyone to score in empty field," he said.

The BNP secretary general said opposition leaders and activists were physically harassed, attacked and killed across the country while police repression continued unabated ahead of the national election.

"We informed the chief election commissioner about these incidents, but he paid no heed to such matters. It seems that we're lying to him and his attitude was inappropriate," he said.

Gonoshasthaya Kendra founder Dr Zafrullah Chowdhury said trouble emerged when JOF convener Dr Kamal Hossain was harshly criticising the role of policemen for not allowing them to run campaign and hold meeting after terming them 'Lathial Bahini' (the force of local goons).

"We thought the CEC would show some sorts of sympathy towards us. But he (CEC) reacted strongly and took stand in favour of the policemen," he said.

BNP standing committee member Nazrul Islam Khan said the EC controls the army deployed for maintaining law and order across the country ahead of the general polls. "But the army men remain inside the camps and police keep continuing with their repression."

BNP standing committee members Mirza Abbas, Abdul Moyen Khan and Goyeswar Chandra Roy and convener of Nagorik Oikya Mahmudur Rahman Manna, among others, were also present.

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