Chattogram-8 by-polls to be absolutely free, says CEC
Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) KM Nurul Huda on Wednesday said the by-election to the Chattogram-8 constituency billed for January 13 will be cent percent fair.
“All preparations have been taken to present a fair election,” he said while talking to reporters after attending a views-exchange meeting at the Circuit House in the afternoon over law and order ahead of the by-polls.
The CEC said there will be no irregularity in the by-election. “This will be an acceptable election and beyond questions. The Election Commission never wants any election to become questionable. The election will be competitive as all parties are participating in it.”
Referring to BNP’s reservations about the use of electronic voting machines (EVMs) in elections, he said anyone can lodge complaints, but it needs to be considered whether these are logical.
About the rumour that a presiding officer has the scope to cast 25 percent votes in the EVM system, Nurul Huda termed it baseless. “There’s no scope in the EVM system to cast one’s vote by another. There’s no scope of casting fake votes.”
The CEC said they have talked to voters when they said the election environment is good.
About allegations of violating electrical code of conduct, he said the matter will be sent to the Commission in the form of a report and action will be taken after examining the allegations.
The Chattogram-8 constituency is comprised of five wards (ward No 3-7) of Chittagong City Corporation and Boalkhali upazila except Sripur and Kharandip unions.
There are some 4.76 lakh (475,996) voters in the constituency.
Moin Uddin Khan Badal, the executive president of a faction of Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (Jasod), was elected MP with Awami League's symbol 'Boat' in the last general election.
He died at a hospital in Bangalore, India on November 7 last at the age of 67.
