CHITTAGONG: The Election Commission Thursday sued BNP Standing Committee member Salahuddin Qader Chowdhury MP on charge of making baseless comments alleging voter-list manipulations ahead of Chittagong City Corporation polls.

District election officer Farhad Hossain filed the case with Kotwali police station.

At a press conference Wednesday, SQ Chowdhury said that some of 55,000 voters on the voter list for CCC election have no photographs. He alleged, “The fake voters have been enlisted to meet special agenda during the election.”

The case statement says, “Salahuddin Qader Chowdhury’s statement is baseless. The photographs of all the voters of CCC electoral area are with the Election Commission.”

Assistant Commissioner of CMP (Kotwali zone) Helal Uddin told banglanews24.com.bd that any fake statement against voter list is a punishable offence according to the section 18 of the  ‘ Voter List Implementation Act 2009’. The punishment for the offence is six months imprisonment and a fine of Tk 2000.

“It is considered as a criminal case,” AC Helal added.

In his reaction, SQ Chowdhury said at a press conference organized at his residence Goodhill that EC could send him a notice before filing the case. “If the answer was not satisfactory, then they could sue me.”

He also claimed that none of the 17 lakh voters of CCC electoral area has got any photograph.

“We can’t expect more of this EC, which was formed by General Moyeen. They wanted to dissolve BNP after the 1/11 changeover. They did business worth thousands of crores of taka in the name of making the voter ID Card,” said the outspoken BNP leader.

BDST: 1115 Hrs, June 11,2010
Corr./SA/AK/MUA