Khaleda terms polls farcical, unacceptable

The Bangladesh Nationalist Party chairperson, Khaleda Zia, on Tuesday night termed the December 29 general elections ‘farcical’ and said this election was unacceptable to the party.
‘This farcical election is unacceptable to BNP,’ Khaleda Zia said in a primary reaction given after a five-hour meeting of the party’s national standing committee.
She said the party had anticipated holding of a farcical poll and warned the nation of the blueprint beforehand.
‘Everyone has witnessed how the blueprint has been implemented,’ Khaleda said adding that even the leaders who had been elected several times by huge margins [in previous elections] were defeated this time.
‘We saw casting of 45 to 50 per cent votes by 12:00 noon [on December 29]. But 90 per cent votes were cast in many centres although there were no voters there,’ she said. ‘None has seen such rigging of votes in the past.’
She said polling was stopped at different centres after midday as there were no agents.
‘I thank the chief election commissioner for holding such a farcical election,’ she said sarcastically. ‘He has paved way for establishing a “neo- Baksal” in the country.’
The commission has declared results of a pre-determined election, she said.
It was the BNP’s first reaction 36 hours after the party’s debacle in the December 29 general elections.
The BNP secured 29 electoral constituencies out of 299 in the polls while its arch-rival Awami League was poised to form a new government after winning 230 seats.
Khaleda Zia chaired the meeting that started at about 7:00pm. The BNP secretary general, Khandaker Delwar Hossain, was among others, present.
Several hundred party activists chanted slogans welcoming the chairperson, as she came to the office at around 6:45pm.
Khaleda appeared emotional as she waved to them from the balcony on the first floor of the office. She stood there in silence for sometime as the party supporters continued chanting slogans.