Oikya Front will contest the national polls till the very end, said the coalition’s convener Dr Kamal Hossai.
“I am deeply disturbed by the overall polls situation,” he said during a media briefing on Sunday (Dec 30) at the alliance headquarters in Motijheel.
“I have yet to hear that the polls are fair in any of the constituencies. I expected that among the 40-50 candidates who have called so far, at least one will say that the elections in their seats are being held fairly.”
He said that he is disturbed that none has so far reported fair elections.
Responding to queries about whether Oikya Front will remain in the polls arena till the very end, Hossain said they will fight till the end.
“It is with great sadness I say that I did not expect such an election scenario after 47 years of independence,” he said.
The Ganoforum chief said that the festive election atmosphere that they needed is missing from the fields.
The Oikya Front leaders present at the briefing all said the same thing- the polling agents were driven out of the centres and that most of the ballots were stamped the night before.
“We heard that 30-40 percent of the ballots were already stamped on Saturday (Dec 29) night, but we did not want to believe it,” said the coalitions Dhaka-7 candidate Mostafa Mohsin Montu.
He added that the police watched silently as the ‘paddy sheaf’ agents were forced out of the polling centres.
Saying that the female polling agents were sent home when they asked for help from Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) officials, he said, “We are going through a horrifying election. We apologize to the helpless masses.”
Meanwhile, the coalition’s Dhaka-6 candidate Subrata Chowdhury said, “The election atmosphere in my constituency is terrifying.”
He added that some of the presiding officers refuse to recognize the polling agents.
“We thought that the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) exclusive centres will be under military surveillance and the voters will be able to cast their franchises but that's not the case.”
He said that the voters are being forced out of the centres after operating the machines with their fingerprints.