CEC hits out at Mahbub Talukder over his remarks

GBNEWS24 DESK//

Taking a swipe at election commissioner Mahbub Talukder for his criticism over the activities of Election Commission, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) KM Nurul Huda  on Tuesday alleged that he (Mahbub) is “doing everything possible to demean the EC.

“Mahbub Talukder is doing everything possible to demean, humiliate and undermine the Election Commission. He is the doing this intentionally to gain personal interest,” he said.

The CEC slammed the election commissioner at a discussion organised to observe ‘National Voter Day’.

bdnews24.com adds: Talukder was present at the event and spoke ahead of Huda. The CEC came down hard on Talukder while delivering his speech as the chief guest of the event.

“Since the day he joined us, Mahbub Talukder has always taken out a piece of paper from his pocket and read out everything negative about the EC. Today wasn’t an exception to it,” Huda said.

“He doesn’t work to serve the interest of the Election Commission; rather he does whatever it takes to demean the EC to serve his personal interest,” he said.

“I thought he would say something about National Voter Day, but he delivered a political statement.”

The election commissioner can work independently and can easily design a statement on the mistakes and shortcomings of the EC by scrutinising the old documents, said Huda.

What are the responsibilities of the EC? What are the officials doing? Questions can be raised on these issues, he said.

“Local elections do not have much importance; on the contrary, bagging a nomination has become the priority. A model of irregularity in the local elections has been built around violence, capture of voting centres and destruction of EVMs,” Talukder said in his written statement, titled ‘My Words.’

Electoral integrity will further erode in Bangladesh unless the polling system is revamped, according to Talukder.