BNP, Oikya Front now begging foreign masters for help: Joy

Prime Minister's ICT Adviser Sajeeb Wazed Joy said on Saturday BNP and Oikya Front, having been thoroughly rejected by voters, have started begging their foreign masters for help, reports UNB.

"They're on an international lobbying and PR blitz to try to prove that our elections were rigged. The fact is that it's mathematically impossible," said Joy, also son of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

In a post shared on his verified Facebook page, he said the Awami League's margin over the BNP is about 49 million votes.

Joy said it is simply not possible to manipulate elections by 49 million votes without it being caught on everyone's mobile camera. "As for their claims of voter intimidation, even if every voter who did not vote for AL voted for the Oikya Front, they would still be more than 22 million votes short."

Still, Joy said, a section of so-called 'civil society' continues to join the BNP's international PR campaign against the election.

Addressing all their complaints, Joy raised a few of his own, saying the final voter turnout figure is 80 percent and it is not a record in Bangladesh.

"That distinction is held by the 2008 elections under the 2007-2008 "caretaker" regime when turnout was 87%. The AL won that election in a landslide with 48% of the vote by itself. In 2001, the voter turnout was around 75.6% and in 1996 it was 75%. Turnout was just slightly higher because this is the first fully participatory elections in a decade," he added.