BNP greets people for vote boycott

The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) has greeted voters for boycotting the 12th parliament election.
"The voters gave an unprecedented response to boycott vote staged by the ruling party," said BNP senior joint secretary general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi during a virtual press briefing on Sunday.
"Not more than 2.0 per cent voters appeared at the polling centres and our vote-boycott campaign succeeded. The countrymen have boycotted stage-managed dummy votes."
Mr Rizvi accused the government of holding elections on Felani murder day as they hanged democracy on the barbed-wire fence.
"They (government) arranged elections on Felani murder day just to appease their foreign master," he maintained.
Mr Rizvi alleged that the government orchestrated this tailor-made election by letting loose torture of opposition followers just to perpetuate their power.
"The Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) said that he could not see any polling agents of other candidates except those of 'boat' symbol," he maintained.
"Independent candidates (mainly from Awami League) told the media that the followers of 'boat' symbol were forcing them to get out of the centres."
Mr Rizvi claimed the government earlier confirmed who would win in the polls.
"The Awami League (AL) has never held a free and fair election. They always hold votes for looting," he said.
Meanwhile, in another development, Mr Rizvi alleged that ballot boxes were stuffed at night even in Sunday's "one-sided" election, reports UNB.
"There were no voters at polling stations in a lopsided election," said the BNP leader.
Addressing a brief rally near Kurmitola Bus Stand in the capital, he said the countrymen rejected the "dummy" polls.
"People didn't go to polling stations. They (AL) stuffed the ballot boxes at late night in this one-sided election to show a high fake turnout."
The BNP leader said their ongoing movement would continue until the fall of this illegal Awami League government.
The voting began at 8:00 am amid the BNP-called 48-hour hartal. The strike ends at 6:00 am today.
The BNP along with nearly three dozen opposition camps has been carrying out a simultaneous movement since December 10 last year to force the government to quit and hold an election under a caretaker setup.
However, they enforced countrywide blockade for 23 days in 12 phases and hartal in multiple phases since October 29 amid incidents of violence like torching public vehicles and passenger trains.
Senior leaders, including BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, were arrested amid their movement, while many others went into hiding in the face of a crackdown by law-enforcers.

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