In post liberation Bangladesh your party won in 1996 and 2008 parliamentary polls. Would you evaluate these two victories differently?
How can I do that? But I must admit that the role of both the Caretaker Government and the Election commission in this poll was absolutely neutral. There was considerable international pressure that this election was conducted impartially and internationally accepted credible norms were followed. But the most redeeming feature of this poll was that our people favoured a secular and democratic system of governance. And this time this could happen because, unlike 2001 poll, military and the EC remained neutral. Which they were not in 2001 poll.
Are you trying to say that there was no rigging in this election?
Of course attempts were made. But people resisted that. A presiding officer and seven others were caught red handed by people in Tangail’s Bhuapur area while stamping on BNP’s poll symbol ~ paddy sheaf. People only handed them over to the police. In Chittagong a relation of one of our rival candidates was also caught red-handed for distributing Taka 41 lakh among voters. Similar incidents happened elsewhere too but our voters were extremely watchful. This awareness among our voters has helped to strengthen our democracy. This time bogus voters could not have a field day because our electoral roll has photographs of voters alongside their names.
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5:45 AM
Moderate Islamist here
