The western media coverage regarding the 11th Parliamentary Election is “very disappointing and unfair” says Sajeeb Wazed Joy, the son of Prime Minister and Awami League chief Sheikh Hasina.
“Western media such as CNN, BBC News and others have as usual completely ignored Bangladeshi news reports, all our party's and the Election Commission's statements, as well as the reports of all foreign observers,” he said in a Facebook post on Monday (Dec 31).
Joy said, “The only things they have reported on are the few irregularities which have already been dealt with, the opposition's false allegations and the biased statements from ANFREL and the US Embassy regarding denial of visas for the ANFREL delegation led by the former Deputy Assistant General of the opposition. This is very disappointing and unfair.”
His remarks come a day after Hasina’ AL won a landslide victory in the Dec 30 election.
Joy, who spearheads the ‘Digital Bangladesh’ campaign as the ICT affairs adviser to the PM, “Official results have been declared by Election Commission. Awami League has won 267 seats out of 298, Jatiya Party won 20, BNP-Jamaat 7 and others 4.”
“The results for one constituency have been postponed due to irregularities in 3 polling centers. Polling was suspended permanently in those centers and will have to be re-polled,” reads the post.
Polling was suspended in 14 polling centers nationwide. The total votes in those centers were not enough to change the results of their constituencies so those have been declared. I believe there was no polling in 1 constituency out of 300 as there was only one candidate.
The final voter turnout tally was 80 percent, Joy said adding, “Since the return to democracy, in 1991 voter turnout was 74.96 percent in 2001 75.59 percent and in 2008 87.13 percent which was a record. This election turnout was quite normal for Bangladesh.”
“I do not have the final vote distribution yet. We have 104 million registered voters in our country out of a population of approximately 165 million. So far the Awami League's margin seems to be around 50 million votes. That is more than the population of most countries,” he said
For those claiming intimidation and fraud, the opposition would have needed over 25 million votes to switch to them in order to win. How is that even possible?
“We have 11 TV news channels in Bangladesh. We were flipping through most of them all day yesterday. Nowhere did we see anything but peaceful voting, with most polling centers having long lines of people waiting to vote,” reads the post.
“We have over 130 million mobile phones in use in Bangladesh now. Almost everyone has a mobile phone camera and anything unusual almost always gets caught on someone's phone camera. There were a few irregularities caught on camera, but have already been dealt with by the Election Commission. Even after mobile internet services were resumed, no new pictures or videos of irregularities have surfaced,” joy said.
Almost all foreign observers have issued statements that the elections were orderly, fair and mostly peaceful. The media documented 17 people killed, majority 9 of which were from our party, 1 from Jatiya Party and 1 law enforcement officer who was shot and killed by the opposition while he tried to defend a polling centre. Just 6 out of 17 were opposition.
The US National Democratic Institute (NDI) tried to appoint an organization led by the former Deputy Attorney General of the opposition as election observers. This was in violation of our Electoral Code as you cannot have election observers who are affiliated with any political party. This was under ANFREL's delegation and they were denied visas by the Election Commission. The remaining ANFREL delegation were given visas and observed the elections.
Trying to appoint an opposition leader and his organization as election monitors demonstrates a clear bias on the part of NDI and ANFREL. This goes against every measure of fairness. ANFREL was the only one to issue a biased statement on the pre-election environment even before voting began. They have not issued a statement regarding the actual voting itself at all, even though all other foreign observer missions have.
“Most regional leaders have already congratulated us on victory. Prime Minister Modi of India was the first to call my mother. My friend and former classmate His Highness the King of Bhutan sent his wishes, along with both the President and Prime Minister of China,” said Joy in his post