Terming the BNP’s allegations about the civic elections as “false, fabricated and baseless”, the ruling Awami League said on Saturday that fearing a debacle in the four city corporation polls, BNP leaders were spreading falsehood. Addressing an impromptu press conference at the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s Dhanmondi political office, senior Awami League leader Mohammad Nasim alleged that BNP leaders were preparing the ground so that, in the event of a defeat in the mayoral race, they can say that the Awami League had manipulated the election results.
Claiming that city polls were held in a free, fair and credible manner, he said: “It is their (BNP leaders) old culture. If they are defeated in the polls, they spread falsehood to make the election controversial. But people
will not believe their propaganda,”the former home minister said.
Recalling the tenure of an earlier BNP-led government, Nasim said people have not forgotten the Magura election. The AL, then in the Opposition, could not put up a candidate to contest the Dhaka City Corporation election, he added.
The Awami League joint general secretary, Mahbub-ul-Alam Hanif, told reporters that BNP leaders have been resorting to falsehood to make the civic polls controversial. “The allegations made by the BNP leaders sitting in Dhaka are not true. They are trying to mislead people by spreading lies. By doing so they are trying to make the elections controversial,” he said. Hanif was talking to reporters at his Karwan Bazar office in the TCB building in the city.
BNP leaders alleged that supporters of AL candidates forced polling agents of candidates of the 18-party combine out of the polling centres and the administration also indulged in irregularities in the civic polls.
The Prime Minister’s special assistant said it’s a deliberate attempt on the part of BNP leaders to make the election controversial. “The voters who have exercised their franchise in the civic polls are saying that the elections were held in a free and fair manner. The candidates are astonished hearing such allegations. The Opposition has been coming up with such allegations only for the sake of opposing,” Hanif added.
-With The Independent input
