AL campaigns in festivity, BNP faces obstruction

AL campaigns in festivity, BNP faces obstruction

Staff Correspondent . Dhaka | Prothom Alo  Dec 27, 2018

.The Bangladesh Awami League has been carrying out electioneering lavishly across the country whereas the principal opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party’s electioneering is plagued by alleged attacks and arrest of the campaigners.

The campaign ends at 8am Friday, two days before the voting of the 11th parliamentary elections on 30 December.

The candidates of the AL and its alliance partners carried out their campaign across the country with processions, rallies and playing recorded songs here and there.

Through video conferences, prime minister Sheikh Hasina addressed rallies in different districts and sought vote for boat, the election symbol of the Awami League.

The AL has no gap in carrying out election campaign, AL deputy publicity and publication secretary Aminul Islam told Prothom Alo.

“We have engaged businessmen, celebrities, journalists and professionals in the electioneering. They are trying to convince the people saying that the continuity of Sheikh Hasina’s government is needed.”

“Joy Bangla (victory of Bengal), boat will win the election. Take Salam (Greetings) from Sheikh Hasina and cast your vote for boat,” AL supporters chanted these slogans during the electioneering.

While visiting different areas in the capital, Prothom Alo correspondents found a large number of electioneering camps at Mohammadpur, Dhanmondi, Tejgaon, Old Dhaka, Uttara and Mirpur. Recorded campaign with the government’s development activities were being played.

However, the candidates of the BNP and its allies were facing threats, obstruction and arrest during electioneering. As reports said, the supporters of BNP came under attack in different parts of the country every day. Even the candidates were also attacked.

BNP standing committee member Mirza Abbas told Prothom Alo that there is no single constituency where the BNP men were not attacked and implicated in lawsuits.

“How will the BNP contest the elections under such circumstances?” he lamented.

According to the BNP, the candidates of Sheaf of Paddy, election symbol of the BNP, were obstructed in about 250 constituencies.

The BNP leaders alleged that members of the law enforcement played their role the way hostile rivals of the BNP did.

The candidatures of 23 BNP aspirants were stayed by the High Court while 17 candidates of the BNP and the Jatiya Oikya Front were jailed.

BNP candidate from Rajshahi-1 constituency Aminul Haque, at a press conference on Wednesday, alleged that he was unable to carry out electioneering peacefully. His electioneering camps were vandalised while his posters wqere torn apart, he added.

Candidates of the BNP and the Oikya Front carried out electioneering in four constituencies of Moulvibazar. But the leaders and activists fear arrest and lawsuits.

Some candidates alleged that their electioneering stages were vandalised.