CEC: Police not arresting anyone without EC’s directives
BNP claims police have arrested scores of its activists after polls schedule announcement
The Election Commission has rejected claims that police are detaining and harassing opposition party activists, saying that no one is being arrested without the commission’s directives.
The administration falls under the jurisdiction of the Election Commission after the announcement of the polls schedule.
“Police are following our instructions. They are not arbitrarily arresting anyone,” Chief Election Commissioner KM Nurul Huda said, replying to a question, on Saturday.
His comment came apparently in response to BNP’s allegations that police were targeting its leaders and activists ahead of the upcoming general election.
The party has accused law enforcement agencies of arbitrarily arresting its activists and implicating them in “false cases.” It claimed that 773 BNP activists had been arrested since the election schedule was announced.
On Wednesday, the BNP gave the commission a list of 529 of its detained activists.
A day later, Huda directed police not to arrest anyone without a warrant or implicate people in cases to harass them.
“Police promised us that they would not do anything without our instruction,” he said on Saturday, clarifying that there was no instruction from the government.
Huda clarified that the administration was following the commission’s command at the moment. “Everyone has to obey the Election Commission’s instructions,” he said.
“There is a level playing field now,” the CEC said after inauguration of a three-day briefing session of executive magistrates in Dhaka.
When is the election?
CEC Huda announced a fresh schedule for the parliamentary election on November 12.
The commission rescheduled the election for December 30 instead of December 23.
The deadline for submitting nomination papers has been changed to November 28.
