52% of Voters do not have voting Rights

The Election Commission is fully prepared for the 10th General Election. For being an uncontested election in 153 seats from 300, the election will be held for 147 seats. For this reason, 52% of the totals do not have the opportunity for voting.

The 18 party alliance led by the main opposition BNP had boycotted the election of 5 January. Some more parties are following them. From registered 37 parties, 12 parties, including the ruling party Awami leagues are taking part in this election. Election Commissioner Mohammad Shahnawaz said that the Election Commissioners, including the Chief Election Commissioner, are going to meet with the President on Thursday afternoon to ensure him about the overall preparation of election. He also said that they had finalized the preparation of the election in accordance with the constitution.

According to “Shushas honer JonnoNagorik (Shujon)”, there will be no election in five districts for the uncontested election in 64 districts. Besides that in 15 districts, there will be the election against one seat. Then in 34 districts there will be a partial election, and in only 10 districts, the election will be held fully.

The total number of voters is 9.19 crore. According to the Election Commission, only 4.36 crore voters will get the chance to vote. That means, approximately 5 lakh voters or 52% of the total voters will not get a chance to vote.

Senior Assistant Secretary of the Election Commissioner said that more than 50% seats would be unelected. So this year's election expenditure is almost half dropped. In a law enforcement sector, the expenditure is around 144 crores only instead of 288 crores. According to the information of Election Commission, this time, the number of polling stations is 18,123; vote rooms 90724; candidates 386 and surprisingly, the number of Assistant Returning Officers is only 286.

The Election Commission said in a press release that, from 48 hours before 5 January election, therefore, from 8am of 3 January, there would be no election campaign.

The Election Commission has given a campaign opportunity to the six parties, including Awamileague to do their campaign in national television BTV. Awami League will get 40 minutes; the National Party will get20 minutes and JP, JSD, Workers Party, and the BNF for 15 minutes individually.

Secretary of Shujon, Dr. Badiul Alam Majumder said that the election in which more than half of the voters cannot get the chance for voting, that election cannot be accepted. Besides, this election is not consistent with the constitution because, in accordance with the constitution, the election should be held with voting right of the voters. But this time more than half of the candidates had been elected by being uncontested. Besides, this election is boycotted by most of the political parties, including the main opposition.

This is to be noted that, to resist this election, the 18 party had given continuous blocked from 5 January.