Not embarrassed at all, says Huda

Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) KM Nurul Huda said he is not embarrassed at all over the performance of the Election Commission led by him.

“We have some successes as well as failures in the last five years. They could not gain the confidence of some parties. I am not embarrassed at all by the performance of last five years tenure,” said at a farewell press conference held at Nirbachan Bhaban in Dhaka on Monday.

Election Commissioners Rafiqul Islam and Kabita Khanam were present at the press conference.

“We have tried our best to be impartial. We have tried to follow the rule of law but not anyone’s direction,” said the CEC

He further said, “We have conducted all the elections legally keeping our stance neutral. We have given importance to every party who came to talk with us. But later, few decide not to go to the polls. This is one of the reasons for which we could not satisfy everyone, could not gain confidence of all.”

In response to allegations of corruption brought by eminent citizens against EC, the CEC said, “The allegations are completely baseless and false. The issue of audit objections has come up. Every ministry in the country has audit objections of hundreds of crores of money due to forgetfulness or misinterpretation of rules or intentional or unintentional reasons.

“Those mistakes are again disposed of through various processes. In this case, if someone is responsible, action is taken. Excess cost is refundable. Some of our audit objections have been resolved. The rest has not solved yet,” he added.