Dhaka: Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) has demanded that the army be given magistracy power to fulfil the goal of arranging free and fair city elections, but the Election Commission has rejected such demand.

Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Kazi Rakibuddin Ahmad said, ‘Army will be deployed to ensure a sense of mental satisfaction to the voters. It will not be given magistracy power since there is no such legal procedure.’

The EC made the remark while talking to the journalists after a meeting at the EC Secretariat on Tuesday, hours after BNP standing committee member Moudud Ahmed urged the government to bestow magistracy power to the army during city polls.

‘We welcome the decision to deploy army but the goal of the army deployment won’t be achieved if the magistracy power is not given (to army),’ Moudud said while talking to reporters after a three-member delegation of BNP met the Chief Election Commissioner at the Election Commission.

Leading the team, Moudud along with BNP standing committee member Jamiruddin Sircar and BNP chairperson’s adviser entered the CEC’s office at about 4:40pm and discussed issues relating to the city corporation polls for about an hour.

Talking to reporters about the meeting, Moudud said they expressed their concern about the attack on Khaleda’s motorcade during her campaign for BNP-backed mayor candidate for Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC).

‘We told the CEC that whatever the election environment had been there in recent times has greatly been hampered due to this (attack on Khaleda’s motorcade). We’ve asked the CEC to take steps to ensure that such incidents don’t take place anymore,’ he added.

Moudud also noted that at the meeting with the CEC, BNP raised its concern over the intimidation its candidates are in.