Censuring Transparency International Bangladesh’s (TIB) research report on the recently held national election, State Minister for Information and Broadcasting Mohammad Ali Arafat said on Thursday that the TIB’s report does not meet international standards, and its statement is illogical.
He made the remarks while talking to reporters in the conference room of the secretariat in the capital.
“Those who conducted this research have no research experiences. They have no research work published in international journals,” he said.
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The state minister said the TIB's report has exceeded “scientific misconduct” and they are trying to mislead people with lies.
"I believe the civil society of Bangladesh will conduct research following international standards with honesty and sincerity and present its findings before the people," he said.
Calling the TIB’s report as its own opinion, Arafat said the Election Commission took action against those who violated electoral code of conduct and even cases have been filed against them.
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“In the report the EC’s strict position against irregularities was not highlighted, rather efforts were made to weaken the mindset by spreading lies,” he said.
"I can challenge the TIB, I want to challenge it; Let them send research to an international standard journal, they won’t publish it. If they publish, I will accept that they have researched it,” the state minister said.
"I can say with certainty that any journal of international standard won’t accept it as a research, let alone publish it. As it did not follow any method of international standards,” Arafat asserted.
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The state minister also said that the report was prepared with absolutely misinformation and it is very sad but true that it has been done.
Questioning the experience of the researchers, he said l.
He said that the people who are involved with the so-called research have no experiences in the fields of elections and political science. Most of them do not have any publications in international journals.