Ruling Awami League leaders and campaigners of the party candidates running for the January 7 general election are allegedly intimidating voters in various ways, including threatening them with the cancellation of their social safety net facilities and dropping their names from the voters’ list if they did not go to polling stations and vote for the boat, the party’s electoral symbol.
As the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party and some other major parties have boycotted the polls, AL candidates are facing contests from their own party rivals vying as independent candidates.
In order to make the election look ‘competitive’ and ‘participatory’, the ruling party is apparently giving its highest effort to ensure a good number of voters’ turnout at the polling stations.
Independent candidate for Khulna-5, Sheikh Akram Hossain, on Tuesday, alleged that some union parishad chairmen and members in the constituency were threatening voters with the cut of widow, old age, and maternity allowances if they did not vote for Awami League candidate Narayan Chandra Chand.
He came up with the allegation at a press conference at the Khulna Press Club. Narayan Chandra denied the allegations.
The incumbent lawmaker said that the allegation against him was raised to make the election controversial.
An Awami League leader of the Kashimari union of Shyamnagar upazila in Satkhira threatened the voters that if they did not cast their votes for the boat, there were no need for them to go to the polling stations, and those who would be doubted must vote openly.
Abdus Sabur Molla, treasurer of Shyamnagar upazila unit AL and former union parishad member of Kashimari, gave the speech during the campaign of Satkhira-4 seat candidate SM Ataul Haque Dolan in Natun Bazar area of Kashimari on Monday night.
The video of his speech went viral on social media.
‘Get up early in the morning and go to the polling station in the name of Allah. I will stay at the polling station from the morning to the evening; there will be no problem, Inshallah. I’ll be there first if there’s a problem,’ he said at the meeting.
‘Everyone, please go vote for the boat symbol on January 7. And those who won’t vote for the boat symbol please don’t go to that centre. Those who spark doubt will have to vote on the table openly. I will not allow them to vote secretly,’ he said.
Awami League Dolon told reporters that the statement might be from 2018, not a new one.
‘If someone has said such words, it is his personal statement and not mine or the party’s,’ he said.
Asked about the matter, the assistant returning officer for the constituency Najibul Alam said that action would be taken against the AL leader.
On December 29, Surabhi Chowdhury, wife of Rangpur-2 AL candidate Ahsanul Haque, asked voters during the campaign in Taraganj’s Alampur area that if they did not cast their votes for the boat, the widow, old age, maternity, and disabled allowance would be stopped.
A video of her speech went viral and showed that men, women, and children gathered in a place in the Alampur area during her campaign.
‘You should not waste your precious vote. You are given widow, old age, maternity, and disability allowances. If you don’t vote on the boat symbol on January 7, they will be closed,’ Surabhi said.
On the same day, Bogura district unit AL joint general secretary AKM Asadur Rahman said that if voters did not vote for boats, their names would be removed from the voters’ list.
He issued the threat while campaigning for the AL candidate for the Bogura-7 constituency, Mustafa Alam.
‘Today, prime minister Sheikh Hasina has ensured honour for women. If you do not vote for Sheikh Hasina, vote for someone else, and your name will be removed from the voter ID card [National Identity Card],’ he said.
Asked about this, Asadur Rahman told reporters that he talked about removing the name from the ID card it was true.
‘But not only from the voter ID, I have also talked about various social security lists of the Awami League government, including old age allowance and widow allowance. It is being misinterpreted. I actually wanted to say that this government had given their names to various lists, including ID cards. If the AL does not win, the name may be removed from the list,’ he said.
The returning officer of the constituency, Saiful Islam, said that the issue was now under inquiry.
Earlier on December 12, Muhammad Akter Hossain, chairman of Ambar Nagor union parishad in Sonaimuri upazila of Noakhali-2 constituency, seized the cards of 492 beneficiaries of the government’s subsidised price food programme.
He informed the beneficiaries that they would get back their cards if they cast their votes for AL candidate Morshed Alam.
Later, he was issued a show-cause notice by the returning officer.
He told New Age on Wednesday that he had already returned the card to the beneficiaries and sought an unconditional apology from the Election Commission in this regard.
The main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party senior joint secretary general, Ruhul Kabir Rizvi, told New Age that as people were not interested in going to the polling station, the government, as well as the ruling Awami League people, were threatening them with consequences.
AL presidium member Abdur Rahman told New Age that some such isolated incidents took place by some over-enthusiastic grassroots leaders and activists.
He said that the party was not encouraging such incidents, and the AL was supporting the Election Commission’s actions in this regard.
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