DHAKA, – Awami League General Secretary and Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader today said the Dhaka city elections were held in a free and fair manner.

“No major clash took place during the city elections except one or two sporadic incidents. In the future, we have to take lessons from the city polls (held on February 1 last),” he said while briefing on contemporary affairs at the Secretariat here.

About BNP’s rejection of the city polls results, the AL general secretary said BNP was in a leadership crisis and haphazard in the city elections.
“Despite that, I think the party did well in the elections…as an opposition party, they did not fail.”

Asked why the city elections saw poor turnout of voters, he said negative campaign against the EVM use and creating panic among voters contributed to the low-voter turnout.

“There was a huge propaganda against the EVM use, the ruling party and the city elections as well. Besides, there was a warning that BNP would remain alert. But the elections were fair… by taking lessons from the mistakes, the political parties will play an important role in creating public opinion in the future,” Quader said.

In the country’s politics, he said, voters’ apathy to elections is not good for democracy. “There was only 27 percent voter turnout in the city polls and we did not expect this. We had expected more votes in our favour. Considering the voters of Awami League, the vote percentage was low,” the road transport minister said.

He said there was an organisational weakness and that is why it is an urgent to reform the ward level committees of Awami League.

Terming the attack on journalists during the city polls ‘an isolated incident’, Quader said but it should not have happened.

“I don’t know where the reporters were attacked. I’ll keep an eye out so that such incidents don’t occur in the future. There were no major clashes
during the elections,” he added.

Responding to a question, the AL general secretary said once Awami League Working Committee President and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina returns home from Italy, she will hold a meeting. “The Prime Minister said she will hold a meeting on the overall weakness of the city elections,” he added.