Dhaka: Bangladesh Nationalist Party on Thursday alleged that its potential candidates for the upcoming Union Council (UC) polls are being harassed to keep them away from the election race.  

‘Our potential candidates for the Union Council polls are not only being intimidated, but also being harassed by raiding their houses implicating them in false cases,’ said BNP joint secretary general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi.

‘They (ruling party) are trying to make our probable candidates to flee their homes so that they can’t contest in the polls,’ he said.  

The BNP leader came up with the allegation while talking to reporters after placing to the Election Commission the name and signature of the party’s acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir as he has been entrusted with power to give authentication to BNP’s UC polls chairman candidates.

A BNP delegation, led by Rizvi, met EC secretary Sirajul Islam at his office and submitted the name and signature of Fakhrul.

Rizvi alleged that the Election Commission is working at the behest of the government as it did during other polls held in the past.  

‘The Election Commission has lost its credibility. It couldn’t perform its duty as an independent body, and exert its power. It always worked as a government’s puppet.’

He also accused the government of doing whatever needs to establish one-party rule ‘wearing a mask of democracy’.

The BNP leader reiterated his party’s position about the local body polls with party symbol, saying it will only disrupt social bonding and harmony in the grassroots level.

The Election Commission has recently declared election schedules for the first phase election in 752 Union Councils fixing 22 March for balloting.

The Commission has worked out a plan to arrange elections to 4,275 Union Councils out of the country’s 4546 ones in six phases by June.