DHAKA, Jan 18, 2024 (BSS)- Sharply criticizing a TIB report published yesterday, State Minister for Information and Broadcasting Mohammad Ali Arafat today said TIB (Transparency International Bangladesh) didn’t follow any international criteria for making report on the 12th parliamentary election.

“The TIB has done the research within 10 days of the national election and reached to many conclusions. I don’t know how it is possible to conduct the research within a short period,” he told reporters at a press briefing at his office at secretariat here.

The state minister said the TIB claimed that they randomly selected 50 constituencies out of 299 for the research, but the report has no reflection of the actual facts of the polling.

“In fact, the stakeholders gave their opinions, not information. There are many discrepancies between facts and opinions,” he added.

Arafat said this is a huge flawed research report as they didn’t even mentioned how many polling centers or booths came for the research. 

He said there were 42,350 polling centers and 2,61,565 polling booths across the country. TIB didn’t mention in how many booths such anomalies were taken place, he said, adding that rather they reached to their conclusion based on the opinions of people of 51 percent constituencies, not voters of the booths.

“It is not possible to reach any conclusion in the way the TIB has followed and it would not be acceptable to any international forum,” he said.

Arafat said the persons who carried out the research works have no experience about the poll or political science. The so-called research has crossed the limitation of scientific method, he said.

The state minister said the EC has taken steps against all irregularities against the persons irrespective of political affiliation. Even, he said, the EC has cancelled the candidacy of a candidate on the polling day which is unprecedented in the history of Bangladesh. But, the TIB didn’t appreciate the move in their so-called research, he said.

He said the Election Commission is an institution and it is needed to have faith in an institutional entity. 

The state minister said the government under the leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has brought massive reforms in the EC in the last 15 years to make it strengthen for long term.

But, Arafat said, TIB and many other vested groups are trying to spread falsehood against the EC to frustrate the country’s democracy.

Arafat hoped that the civil society and other civic forums would conduct research maintaining international criteria with honesty and sincerity for the sake of the country. 

Replying to a query, Arafat said Bangladesh is a democratic country and every civil society has rights to express their opinion. 

“However, I would like to urge them to keep in mind about the intellectual corruption apart from financial corruption,” he said.