TIB Trustee Board Chairman Advocate Sultana Kamal addressing a press conference in the city yesterday. -AA
Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) has stated that the eleventh parliamentary election was questionable and controversial. According to TIB, there was no level playing field for all candidates. Such polls are not a positive sign for democracy, TIB added.
TIB officials put forward their observations about the eleventh parliamentary election at a press conference in the capital on Tuesday. They demanded a judicial probe into the electoral irregularities which allegedly took place.
Awami League and its Grand Alliance partners won 288 seats in the election while Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and its allies won only 7 seats in the election held on 30th December 2018. BNP leaders did not take oaths as members of parliament (MPs) discarding the election results. BNP and Jatiya Oikya Front have urged the government to hold reelection.
TIB prepared a special report on the election scrutinizing information gathered from 107 candidates. TIB blamed Election Commission (EC) for not being able to carry out its duties properly. Election Commissioners had disagreements with each other over the existence of level playing field, TIB said.
Most of the candidates spent more money than the amount stipulated by EC during campaign, according to TIB. This is a breach of electoral code. TIB Executive Director Dr. Iftekharuzzaman said that the electoral regulations were violated every now and then while all voters did not have equal opportunity to cast their ballots. Election Commission was not neutral enough, Dr. Iftekharuzzaman further said.
Sultana Kamal, President of TIB Trustee Board said that the eleventh parliamentary election was a questionable and controversial one because all candidates could not avail equal privileges. She further said that there were lots of anomalies in the election which need to be rectified to hold better polls in days to come.
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