Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) KM Nurul Huda has commented that there was no evidence of harassment of the BNP nominated candidates.
Responding to a question to reporters about the BNP's allegations, CEC said the BNP said their candidates were being harassed by the police. However, we have not seen any such harassment.
He told reporters after a meeting with the Awami League and BNP representatives at the Nirbachan Bhavan on Monday (Jan. 27).
He also said that the BNP did file any case with the police Gopibag clash. Later I talked to the OC sitting there. The OC said they did not come to us and did not file any case. Police said that Awami League has filed case. If there is a criminal offense, the case can be filed by any aggrieved person. That is a legal issue.
Regarding the allegations of the Awami League, the CEC said the Awami League blamed the BNP for yesterday's incident. Their statement said that terrorist groups would enter Dhaka outside. And it will disrupt the election process. We have said that if there is a specific complaint, it should be stated. And to provide legal assistance to the aggrieved person if there is a criminal offense.
Replying to a question as to whether such incidents are a hindrance to a fair election, he said, "Of course, such incidents have a negative impact on elections, and those should not happen." We always say that such things will not happen. We always say to work with tolerance. I believe they work with tolerance too. Two such incidents have occurred in such a big city, it has not been a cause for disruption of the elections.
Replying to a question on what seemed to the Election Commission, he said, "We cannot say anything about criminal offenses." However, we can investigate locally, it takes time. The Returning officer, OC and the magistrate have been engaged to probe the incident but the report is yet to reach. In fact if a candidate is involved, legal action will be taken against him.
He said there was no chance of deterioration of law and order on the day of the polling.
Replying to another question regarding the status of outsiders in Dhaka, he said, "They have complained to us that many outsiders have arrived." We have a directive to the police so that outsiders cannot commit terrorist acts. They will certainly be vigilant.
Referring to the BNP's complaint about temporary camps he said, "We will remove those." And we don't have the information that there are 100 camps. Could be somewhere. We told the Returning officers that if there was any camp on the road, it shall be removed.