Trashing out BNP’s allegation of holding a secret meeting with top civil servants, Election Commission (EC) Secretary Helal Uddin Ahmed today said that false allegation has been brought to keep him under pressure.

Helal Uddin also called upon the BNP to stay away from bringing such allegation against him deliberately.

The EC Secretariat was briefing media this evening, hours after BNP Senior Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi claimed that some top officials of civil administration and law enforcement agencies including five bureaucrats have held a “secret meeting” to “yield election result in favour of the ruling quarter”.

Rizvi also said, “The two-and-a-half-hour-long meeting was held at a conference room of the Officers’ Club around 7:30pm on November 20.”

When reporters sought his reaction over the allegation, Helal Uddin said, “All are propaganda and falsehood. These are being done to plunge the commission into controversy and taint its image.”      

He said the EC secretary is an official of the republic who works at an independent organisation.

“A secretary works in line with the directives of the Election Commission. Except this, there is no separate entity of a secretary,” Helal Uddin said expressing strong condemnation to the BNP’s allegation.

Earlier, BNP lodged a written allegation to the EC describing Helal Uddin as “controversial and partisan” and demanded the commission to withdraw him. BNP in its written allegation said the EC secretary has held secret meetings with top officials of the government in Dhaka and Chattogram.