Cumilla incident proves decision not to join polls was right: Fakhrul

BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said on Thursday his party boycotted the election to Cumilla City Corporation as it knew what would happen there, reports UNB.
"You yourself saw yesterday (Wednesday)'s election. I don't want to talk about it further…We knew earlier that this thing would happen there. That's why we earlier clearly said we would not go to any polls under this regime," he said.
The BNP leader came up with the remarks while speaking at a discussion, organised by a faction of Bangladesh Federal Union of Journalists (BFUJ) and Dhaka Union of Journalists (DUJ) at the Jatiya Press Club in the city on Thursday, marking the 'Black Day commemorating the shutdown of all newspapers except four state-run ones on 16 June 1975.
He also said joining polls under this government means giving it more legitimacy. "It's now a proven fact."
Awami League mayoral candidate Arfanul Haque Rifat was unofficially declared the winner of the high-voltage Cumilla City Corporation election held on Wednesday.
As per the results announced by returning officer of the polls, Shahedunnabi Chowdhury, Rifat defeated two-time mayor Monirul Haque Sakku by a margin of only 343 votes.
Sakku, however, turned down the election results and said he was defeated in a planned way by manipulating the results of a few centres at the last time.
Fakhrul bemoaned that though 50 years have passed since the independence of Bangladesh, the nation still could not ensure a system of peaceful transfer of power.
Under the circumstances, the BNP leader said there is no alternative to restoring democracy in the country to protect press freedom, judiciary, administration, education and all other things.