Dhaka: Prof Emajuddin Ahmed, the convener of pro-BNP professionals’ electoral platform Adarsha Dhaka Andolan, termed Tuesday’s city polls the worst and most heinous and hated ones.

Addressing a press conference at BNP’s Nayapaltan central office, he also said the city polls were nothing but a showdown of stuffing ballot boxes with muscle power.

‘Many elections had been held in the country since 1946. But, I never saw in my life such a worst, heinous and hated election in the past like this one. It can’t be called an election. It was a showdown of stuffing ballot boxes by flexing muscles,’ he said.

BNP arranged the emergency press conference at which the party announced to boycott the elections to three cities bringing the allegations of widespread vote rigging by pro-Awami League men with the help of law enforcers and polling officials.

Emajuddin, also a former vice chancellor of Dhaka University, said the failure of the government and the Election Commission to hold the city polls in a free and fair manner is unpardonable.

Narrating the assault on him allegedly by the ruling party men, the ex-DU VC said he along with his son and grandsons and daughters went to cast his vote at Dhaka College polling station around 9:50am.

As he came out of the polling centre, the ex-DU VC said, ‘Some students asked me aren’t you ashamed yourself as you’ve come to cast your vote after burning people. ‘I didn’t hear such a thing over nearly 50 years of my teaching life. ‘Hearing this, I’ve thought my teaching of all those days has gone in vein.’

He alleged that the students later hurled a stone at his vehicle, damaging its window.

Mentioning that they gave candidates in the city polls from their platform Adarsha Dhaka Andolan with a hope to pave the path for democracy to return and get rid of the suffocating situation the country was going through. ‘The pictures of vote-rigging have suggested that our efforts turned unsuccessful.’