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Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Kazi Habibul Awal said that the Election Commission (EC) can sit anywhere and stop the election.

The CEC said this in a press conference at the Agargaon election building in the capital on Thursday afternoon. He said these things regarding the announcement of closure of by-elections of Gaibandha-5 constituencies.

CEC said, “Article 91 of the law says, if we think, what we think, we will think sitting in Dhaka, not sitting in Comilla, not sitting in Chittagong or we can think sitting on a ship, not that; If we believe that the election is not being conducted properly, then the Election Commission can stop the election of any center or all the centers.

How logical it is to stop voting by sitting in Dhaka and watching CCTV – CEC said in response to Awami League General Secretary Obaidul Quader’s question, ‘I have already said, Awami League General Secretary could have sat with us and watched. I have heard many people saying, how is it possible to see so many centers while sitting in the office. Road control is also done in different countries by watching CCTV. The system is designed in such a way that the facts of 200, 400 places can be informed at one place. We think, it is a shoe technology.

Qazi Habibul Awal said, ‘The confusion may be because of how I saw it or how you saw it. If I were one of them, I would definitely have this question. So the thing should be clear to all that we have taken a deliberate decision and seen it.’

The EC has canceled the polling of one center after another due to various irregularities since the start of voting in Gaibandha-5 (Saghata-Phulchari) constituency on Wednesday morning. By noon, one-third of the centers had rejected the vote. In the end, unable to handle the situation, the entire polling was declared closed at around 2:30 PM.