Khaleda, MPs among 95,000 deprived of voting

Sayeed Muhammad of DOT
Over 95,000 voters, including former prime minister Khaleda Zia and some ex-MPs, who are in jail, are missing to exercise their voting right today, with Election Commission taking no initiative in this regard.
Former National Human Right Commission chairman Mizanur Rahman said there was no doubt that their basic right to franchise was being curtailed, reports the New Age.
The Awami League had earlier discussed how the expatriate Bangladeshis could cast vote, but none discussed how a large number of people languishing in jails can cast their ballot. Inspector general of prisons Brigadier General AKM Mustafa Kamal Pasha could not be reached, but Dhaka division deputy inspector general of prisons Tipu Sultan said they took no initiative to this end.
Election Commission additional secretary Mokhlesur Rahman said, “No initiative was taken for allowing voters in jails to cast vote.”
Asked about postal voting, stipulated in Article 27 of the Representation of the People Order and Section-8 of the Electoral Rolls Act, for inmates, officials working in Bangladesh missions abroad and voters on election duty, he said, ‘We have taken no initiative so far as the process has not earned popularity.’
Bangladesh Nationalist Party candidate and joint secretary general AM Mahbub Uddin Khokon said the state mechanism deprived the people in jails of their voting rights.
The prisons of the country are packed with 95,321 inmates, as of December 26.
About 4,500 people, BNP activists, landed in jails in a week, December 19-26.
The number of inmates of prisons reached 95,321 as of December 26 although 3,123 convicts were released on completion of sentences in a month until Wednesday and the number of drugs-related undertrials and female undertrials reduced.
The main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party at a press conference on Thursday alleged that 9,202 of its leaders and activists were arrested in 806 fictitious and false cases in the past 22 days.