Reliable reports emanating from various parts of Bangladesh indicate that the Jamaat-e-Islami is stepping up coordinated efforts to manipulate and rig the February 12 elections across the country. The party is becoming increasingly panicked over its electoral fortunes and is therefore leaving no stone unturned in its quest to emerge as a significant political player.
The full-fledged efforts to deny the will of the people in a country where the most significant political party, the Awami League, has already been pushed out of the electoral arena, primarily through the efforts of the Jamaat, in league with the so-called interim administration, encompass a broad range of activities.
Firstly, the JEI is undertaking a massive migration of voters from constituencies where it has no chance of winning to those where it hopes to present a challenge to the BNP, or even to overcome that party through means fair and foul.
Secondly, the party has been working to collect identity cards of women voters, so that these can be used across the board to conduct bogus voting on a massive scale, given that there is no provision for burqa-clad women to be asked to prove their identities.
Thirdly, JEI supporters have been instructed to begin queueing up at polling booths in large numbers from early morning, and to keep replenishing their numbers in order to ensure that voters for other parties, especially the BNP, are delayed so much that they are not able to vote.
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There are reports to indicate that nearly a third of the Bangladesh Army officers and men are sympathetic to, and aligned with, the JEI, and senior General-level officers in Jessore and Rangpur divisions have been canvassing people to vote for JEI.
