Prof Yunus urges urgent action to permanently curb election fraud

Chief Adviser Prof Muhammad Yunus on Monday said urgent and effective steps must be taken to ensure that election fraud never recurs in Bangladesh, as he received the investigation report on irregularities in the 2014, 2018 and 2024 national elections.

The report was submitted by the National Election Investigation Commission, which was formed on July 29 last year.

“We had heard about vote rigging and were aware of certain aspects. But they brazenly dismantled the entire process, manipulated the system, and produced outcomes on paper according to their own will. These findings must be placed before the nation. There must be a complete and transparent record,” Prof Yunus said while receiving the report at the state guesthouse Jamuna.

He said the entire nation had been penalised through the misuse of public funds to conduct elections that effectively stripped citizens of their voting rights.

“The people of this country watched helplessly and were unable to act. Those responsible must be identified so that the public can at least find some sense of justice. We must know who did this and how,” he said, stressing that safeguards must be introduced to prevent election robbery from ever happening again.

The report was handed over by National Election Investigation Commission Chairman Justice Shamim Hasnain, along with members Shamim Al Mamun, Kazi Mahfuzul Haque Supan, Barrister Tazrian Akram Hossain and Dr Md Abdul Alim.

Government advisers Dr Asif Nazrul, Adilur Rahman Khan, Syeda Rizwana Hasan and Mostofa Sarwar Farooki were also present at the event.

According to the Chief Adviser’s press wing, the report concluded that between 2014 and 2024, control of the election process was effectively taken away from the Election Commission and transferred to the administration.

During this period, the administration emerged as the dominant authority in managing elections, sidelining the constitutional role of the Election Commission.

Following the submission of the report, the Election Investigation Commission briefed the media on its findings at a press conference held outside Jamuna.

The commission stated that the uncontested elections in 153 constituencies and the so-called “contests” in the remaining 147 seats in the 2014 polls were fully orchestrated and meticulously planned to keep the Awami League in power.

The report noted that after the 2014 election faced widespread international criticism for its lack of competition, the Awami League-led government under former prime minister Sheikh Hasina devised a large-scale strategy to portray the 2018 elections as competitive.

BNP and other opposition parties failed to recognise the long-term nature of this strategy and participated in the polls, the commission said.

According to the findings, ballot papers in nearly 80 percent of polling centres were sealed the night before voting during the 2018 elections, virtually guaranteeing the Awami League’s victory.

The report also found that an unethical competition within the administration to deliver victories for the ruling party resulted in voter turnout exceeding 100 percent in some centres.

Having learned from this experience, BNP and other opposition parties stayed away from the 2024 elections.

In response, the Awami League and its allies attempted to create an illusion of competition by fielding so-called “dummy” candidates, the commission said.

The report further claimed that the strategies behind all three elections were devised at the highest levels of the state and executed through segments of the administration, police, Election Commission and intelligence agencies, which were used as instruments to implement the plan.