The opposition will accept no election with electronic voting machines in use under a partisan government, BNP chief Khaleda Zia said, adding that army will have to be deployed in the upcoming election. “We will not accept any vote under the partisan government. We will not allow such elections in the country. Now they [the government] are conspiring two things, holding the polls without deploying army and getting the ballots on EVM,” Khaleda told a wayside in Jessore on Sunday, as part of her two-day road march to Khulna.
“We want to say that no polls without the army (deployment) will be allowed. The EVMs are vote manipulation machines. We do not accept them.” The BNP-backed candidate was withdrawn from the Narayanganj City Corporation mayoral race only seven hours before the vote on Oct 30 as the army was not deployed.
The opposition leader reached Jessore’s Eidgah ground as she would head toward Khulna to gather public support for reinstatement of the caretaker government system, which was scrapped by the incumbent administration following a Supreme Court order.
Local leaders and activists started addressing the street rally from Sunday dawn, even though the programme officially began around 9am. Khaleda reached the venue around 11.30am. Activists and supporters started crowding from early hours to hear their leader.
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