BNP demands army deployment, rescheduling of Chattogram city polls
The BNP candidate placed his four demands to Returning Officer Muhammad Hasanuzzaman on Wednesday afternoon
BNP's mayoral candidate in the Chattogram City Corporation Election, Dr Shahadat Hossain, demands rescheduling of the election and deployment of the army inside polling centres.
Dr Shahadat said, "The Election Commission has fixed March 29 as the date of election, which is preceded by three consecutive holidays. This may cause a lower turnout of voters. So, I demand that the election be held on March 31."
The other demands are - reducing the ability of presiding officers to use their fingerprints to aid voters in casting their vote from 5 percent of the total voting population to 1 percent and ensuring that every voter can enter the voting center after showing their national ID cards.
He placed his four demands to Returning Officer Muhammad Hasanuzzaman on Wednesday afternoon.
The BNP candidate said, "Although the army supervises the technical aspect of the electronic voting machines, they do not take care of security and other issues. This results in many irregularities. So I have demanded army deployment."
Dr Shahadat alleged that many people try to cast votes by forcefully entering the polling centers. "To ensure that nobody other than voters enter the polling centres, I have demanded the rule of checking national identity cards before letting people enter there."
Returning Officer Muhammad Hasanuzzaman said, "We will send the BNP mayoral candidate's demands to the Election Commission where senior officials will take a decision on meeting these demands."