Several ministers on Thursday reacted sharply to Transparency International Bangladesh’s findings that labelled the January 7 general election as not free, fair, and one-sided.
TIB released its research findings on the 12th parliamentary elections on Wednesday, saying that the polls were not free, fair, and participatory and were a ‘bad indication’ for the country’s democracy and the future of elections.
‘They are agents of the BNP [Bangladesh Nationalist Party],’ ruling Awami League general secretary and road transport and bridges minister Obaidul Quader said at a press briefing, adding that TIB speaks to the tune of the BNP.
‘History says they have always been against the Awami League. They speak for the BNP. We could not find impartiality in their research,’ Quader said at the press briefing at the Awami League president’s office in Dhaka’s Dhanmondi, terming the TIB findings as ‘one-sided and anti-government.’
He said that some organisations talk about accidents. ‘If 100 die, they say 500 have died. TIB is like them.’
In a separate press conference on Thursday, foreign minister Hasan Mahmud said that informed quarters had questioned whether TIB published its report on the January 7 election to give ammunition to anti-election and anti-democratic forces.
‘There are similarities in language between what the BNP is saying and what the TIB is saying. We expect that TIB will not work as a supportive force for anti-election and anti-democratic forces,’ he said at the press conference at his ministry.
Though TIB was supposed to research issues, in most cases they do not do any research, Hasan Mahmud claimed.
The state minister for information and broadcasting, Mohammad Ali Arafat, said that TIB didn’t follow any international criteria for making a report on the 12th parliamentary election.
‘The TIB did the research within 10 days of the national election and reached too many conclusions. I don’t know how it is possible to conduct research within a short period,’ he told reporters at a press briefing in his office at the secretariat.
Arafat said that it was a hugely flawed research report that didn’t mention how many polling centres or booths fell under it.
TIB’s findings said that participatory and free elections were not held due to the contradictory and intransigent positions of the two major parties on the issue of poll-time government.
It said that the election was not competitive in most of the constituencies, even though the ruling party fielded independent candidates from its own party to give the election a more competitive and participatory feel.
New Age
