The Awami League used party men, police and administration officials to influence the 11th parliamentary polls, BNP-led Jatiya Oikyafront leaders said yesterday at a “mass hearing”. 

The alliance leaders said ghost cases were filed against its activists and they were harassed and detained without warrants.

“There was no voting on December 30 and so the government formed from it is not valid,” said Maj Gen (retd) AMSA Amin, who had run with Dr Kamal Hossain-led Gonoforum ticket from Kurigram-2.         

The Oikyafront arranged the “mass hearing” on “so-called parliamentary election” at the Supreme Court Bar Association auditorium. A number of the alliance candidates had filed election petitions with the High Court challenging the December 30 polls results.

At least 41 candidates testified during the over seven-hour-long session of the “mass hearing” before a panel that included Dr Kamal and former Dhaka University vice-chancellor Prof Emajuddin Ahmed.

Leaders of the BNP and its political allies said they, by taking part in the December 30 polls, had “unmasked the ruling party”. Top BNP leaders, including its Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, Vice-Chairman Abdullah Al Noman and Standing Committee Member Abdul Moyeen Khan attended the programme.

Sabina Yasmin, who ran from Natore-2, said, “I was getting ready to go to the polling stations after learning that my polling agents had been driven out of there on election day.”

She said she could not cast her vote even because her house had been padlocked from the outside that morning.

Detectives in plainclothes picked up her husband -- BNP Organising Secretary Ruhul Kuddus Talukder Dulu -- on December 12. Dulu is now in Keraniganj jail.

Sabina said on December 20 when they were distributing campaign flyers, 30 to 40 AL men harassed her and 15 women working for her campaign.

Four days later, about 500 armed AL men attacked her campaign team of 200, most of whom were women, said Sabina, adding that she along with her activists took cover in a drug store.

They were confined to the shop until police rea

Attendees at the programme offering prayers for the victims of the Chawkbazar fire. Photo: Prabir Das

“I hired fewer men [for the campaign] because they used to get clobbered with hammers,” she said.

Sabina claimed that she could not campaign after December 24.

Anisur Rahman Talukder, who was the BNP candidate for Madaripur-3, said the AL had repeatedly been saying that “the opposition party didn't campaign, didn't have posters printed, and didn't ask for votes”.

Whenever they tried to campaign, they were harassed, attacked, and their posters were torn, he said.

Several other candidates echoed him. Law enforcers cordoned off candidates' houses and when they or their activists came out of the houses, they were picked up, often without any arrest warrants, they said.

Anisur said he learnt from his sources on election day morning that 80 percent of the votes had been cast between 2:30am and 5:00am that day.

BNP leader Rumana Mahmud, who ran from Sirajganj-2, said police fired at her and her activists when they were campaigning on December 14. Her aide Mery Begum lost her eyesight in the attack, she said.

Sardar Sakhawat Hossain Bakul, BNP nominee for Narsingdi-4, alleged that his polling agents were ousted from 152 of 155 polling centres in his constituency on election day.

Nitai Roy Chowdhury, who ran from Magura-2 and bagged around 65,000 votes, alleged that before election day, police went to every ward, union and village in his constituency and threatened his party leaders and activists, detained some of them. They also harassed the women, he claimed.

BNP candidate for Satkhira-1 Habibul Islam Habib said he was nominated several times by the party and had bagged 1.46 lakh votes in the 2008 polls.

He said it was incredible that he got only 17,445 votes and had not got a single vote in 20 of 188 polling stations.

Other defeated candidates of the 11th parliamentary election also accused the ruling party, Election Commission, officials of the administration, intelligence and security personnel of violating the constitution and stripping people their right to vote.

Thanking the alliance members for arranging the “mass hearing”, Dr Kamal said, “It [December 30 polls] cannot be said an election but an event where the government in the name of election staged a farce.”

The government deprived the country's people of their rights, violated the constitution, and insulted democracy, he said.

Without mentioning any name, Dr Kamal said state servants who were in the administration should be ashamed of themselves because they forgot their constitutional duties and became servants of “a single individual”.

The eminent jurist also said BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia should be immediately released, unconditionally.

“It is a pity that even after 48 years of independence, we have to raise such demand for those who contributed to democracy,” he said, calling for unity to “restore” democracy in the country.

The national election of December 30 has turned the life of Mofiz Uddin upside down -- and all for supporting BNP.

From a decent tea-shop vendor at Rabeya market of Bonkishore village in Rajshahi's Tanore upazila, the 48-year old man now works on a potato field.

“I have been a dedicated BNP worker since the 90s,” Mofiz said. “If I have committed a crime, it would be my engagement with BNP.”

In a tin-roofed earthen room under a Koroi tree at the market, Mofiz started the shop and ran it for over the last 20 years.

Furnished with a television, eight chairs, five tables, four benches and a few racks of bakery items, sweets and groceries, his tea-shop fetched him around Tk 3,000 a day to support his family of seven.

On December 21, Mofiz joined the election campaign for BNP candidate Aminul Haq when the latter went to Pachondor union.

Later that evening, a group of stick wielding men went to the market and ransacked the outside of his tea-shop, according to eye-witnesses.

“The attackers were outsiders, not known to me,” said a local businessman.

“I heard about the attack on my shop when I reached home, after campaigning that day,” said Mofiz. A friend of his called him from the market and told him to hide as the attackers were looking for him.

Until polls day, local AL men used the tea-shop as the election office of Awami League candidate Omor Faruk Chowdhury.

“Two days after the election ended, some local AL workers damaged what was left of the shop, including the earthen room, tin-roof, furniture, television, and everything else inside.”

Locals told this correspondent that they heard the AL men would build a party office in that place.

When contacted, Reaz Uddin, president of AL unit at Pachondor ward-2, said, “We are yet to decide on building our office there. If not an office, we may construct a passengers' shed that will come to the use of many.”

He said the land was 'khas' and Mofiz had been illegally occupying it.

On the identity of the attackers, he said, “Nobody knows them. They were wearing helmets and came to the village on motorcycles.”

He denied that it was local AL men who had damaged the shop after the election.

“It was Mofiz's brother, nephew and son who damaged the shop,” he said. On why Mofiz's own relatives would damage the shop, Reaz did not have an explanation.

When contacted, Rajshahi Superintendent of Police Md Shahidullah said they had not heard about the incident.

“We will investigate all allegations of post-election violence,” said the SP, adding that police circulated a message in the district so that no one would spread fear among others over feuds during the election.

Upon losing his source of income, Mofiz began work as day labourer on the potato fields to make ends meet, earning a mere Tk 300 a day.

“I am living in fear. I could not even go see the condition of my shop, the one I so dearly built from scratch,” he said. 

Two Gonoforum lawmakers-elect yesterday wrote to the Speaker expressing their willingness to take oath on March 7.

Sultan Mohammad Monsur and Mokabbir Khan, presidium members of Gonoforum, took part in the December 30 national election as Gonoforum candidates, with the BNP's electoral symbol “sheaf of paddy”.

Asked about the matter, BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir told The Daily Star that he did not know anything about the letter.

Senior Gonoforum leaders said they would take all kinds of actions against the two leaders if they took oath disobeying the party's decision.

Just around a month before the national election, the BNP, the Gonoforum and some other political parties had formed Jatiya Oikyafront.

Oikyafront leaders, including Dr Kamal Hossain, boycotted the polls results and called for a new election.

The BNP won only six seats against 289 by the ruling Awami League-led Grand Alliance.

All the six MPs-elect of BNP decided not to join the Jatiya Sangsad.

Talking to this newspaper, Sultan Monsur yesterday said Dr Kamal knew about their oath.

Mostafa Mohsin Montu, general secretary of Gonoforum, said the two leaders would violate the party's decision if they took oath.

“Our party has decided not to send the two MPs to parliament. We will take all necessary actions if they take oath.”

Montu also said the duo was misleading people by giving false statements.

If they took oath violating the party's decision, the Gonoforum would write to the Speaker to cancel their memberships for floor-crossing, he said.

Former Awami League leader Sultan Mansur, also an ex vice-president of Ducsu, was elected MP from Moulvibazar-2 and Mokabbir from Sylhet-2.

Soon after the December 30 election, the duo said Kamal was positive about their joining parliament.

On January 31, Kamal told journalists that the Gonoforum has informed the two about its decision that they should not take oath. 

In the first parliament 45 years ago, none of the parties was recognised as official opposition due to their poor strength in the House.

The resounding victory of ruling Awami League-led alliance in Sunday's polls has diminished the scope for emergence of an official opposition in the new parliament.

The AL-led alliance together grabbed 288 seats out of 298 with the ruling party alone bagging 259 seats. The BNP-led alliance managed to secure only seven seats. [Election to Gaibandha-3 was rescheduled to January 27 following the death of a candidate and re-polling will take place in three centres in Brahmanbaria-2 on January 9.]

Against this backdrop, Jatiya Party may sit on the opposition bench in the new parliament to be formed with MPs-elect swearing in tomorrow.

The JP, a key component of the AL-led grand electoral alliance, emerged as the second largest party by obtaining 20 seats.

It needs at least five more to get official recognition as the opposition, according to the verbal directive given by Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman during a debate in the first parliament on April 12, 1973.

In the first parliamentary election held in 1973, the AL won 293 seats. The opposition parties -- Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal, Bangladesh Jatiya League, National Awami Party and others obtained only seven seats.

They extended their support to Jatiya League leader Ataur Rahman Khan and demanded that he be recognised as the leader of the   opposition.   

During the debate over recognition as opposition, Bangabandhu said a party could not be recognised as opposition if it did not have at least 25 MPs.

If any group has less than 25 MPs and at least 10 MPs, it can be termed a parliamentary group, not a parliamentary party, said Bangabandhu.

"The speech delivered by Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman is the only directive," wrote Khandaker Abdul Haq in his book "Parliamentary Practice and Procedure" published by the Jatiya Sangsad Secretariat in 2001.

"His directive has been derived from experiences of the Pakistan National Assembly and East Pakistan Provincial Assembly and it is consistent with the parliamentary culture of India and this sub-continent," wrote Haq, who was a senior official at the Parliament Secretariat.

If Bangabandhu's directive is taken into consideration, JP would need five more seats to qualify to become the opposition party in the new parliament. If JP is not the official opposition, none of its MPs could be the leader of the opposition.

The JP became the main opposition in the current parliament formed through the 2014 election, which the BNP-led alliance boycotted. It won 34 seats and its senior leader Raushan Ershad was recognised as the leader of the opposition with a status of a minister. Three JP MPs were also made ministers.

Their dual role has been criticised. The party could not play its due role as the main opposition in parliament in the last five years.

JP Secretary General Mashiur Rahman Ranga yesterday said his party would hold a joint meeting of the party's presidium members and MPs-elect today to decide whether it would join the government or sit on the opposition bench.

"We will also discuss it with the grand alliance," he said at a discussion at the party's Banani office.