New Delhi, Feb 13 (IANS) Bangladesh’s deposed premier Sheikh Hasina criticised her country’s election held on Thursday as “an exercise in industrial-scale administrative manipulation and numerical fraud”, and sought its annulment.

Calculating the percentage of voter participation against the total number of electors, as updated by the Bangladesh Election Commission from time-to-time on Thursday, she pointed out that while the turnout was low initially, later figures “presented highly inconsistent and unrealistic patterns”.

In a statement issued on Friday, the Bangladesh Awami League President also claimed incidents of violence, seizure of weapons, use of money for vote-buying, and multiple arrests before polls. The statement further alleged several irregularities in the poll process as well, including bogus voting on election day.

She argued that “by 11 a.m.—within the first three hours and thirty minutes—only 14.96 per cent of votes had been cast, totalling 1,91,05,684 votes. This implies an average of 90,979 votes cast per minute, an implausible figure given the extremely low voter turnout observed at polling stations.” The statement noted that the total number of registered voters was 127,711,793, and polling was scheduled from 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on Thursday.

Hasina stated that until that time, voter turnout usually “progresses at its fastest and most critical pace”. But Thursday’s numbers, according to her, reflected a low percentage in that crucial three-and-a-half-hour time. “Then, suddenly, by 12 noon, turnout jumped to 32.88 per cent — an extraordinarily abnormal increase within a single hour,” the statement alleged.

“This means that between 11 a.m. and 12 noon — a single hour — 17.92 per cent of votes, or 22,880,350 ballots, were allegedly cast. This implies an average of approximately 3,81,339 votes per minute. Compared to the average voting rate of the first three and a half hours, this represents an implausible several-fold increase,” it added.

The statement further calculated that, presuming all 32,789 polling centres were operational, an average of 11.63 votes were cast per centre per minute or one vote every 5.16 seconds at each polling station.

She also claimed that among approximately 86,000 eligible voters in prisons, only around 5,000, or about 3 per cent, voted. Also, of roughly 15 million overseas voters, only around 500,000, or about 7 per cent, cast their ballots.

“In light of these facts, the claim of nearly 60 per cent overall voter turnout is not only unrealistic but borders on the absurd,” charged Hasina.

The statement also flagged alleged postponement in announcing the referendum results, a delay of allegedly “nearly five hours in publishing the referendum results after the national election results, combined with numerical inconsistencies in reported voter participation, has created a clear public perception of electoral fraud.”

The Muhammad Yunus-led interim government chose to seek a referendum on a number of reforms and amendments over what is called the “July Charter”. “During its tenure, the BNP voluntarily boycotted two elections. Not only that, they declared the elections null and resorted to arson and widespread destruction, causing the deaths of countless people. In contrast, the Awami League did not boycott the election. Instead, it was forcibly kept out of the election through unlawful bans,” added Hasina’s statement.

She sought an annulment of the election, resignation of Yunus, withdrawal of “false cases and the release of all political prisoners, and the lifting of restrictions imposed on Awami League activities.

–IANS

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