Awami League general secretary Syed Ashraful Islam called upon the opposition to take preparation for participating in the upcoming general election for the continuation of democracy in the country. “AL has already started the process of taking part in the polls and I hope the other political parties will do the same in order to make the coming elections participatory,” he said this before inaugurating the distribution of nomination forms at the party central office. The LGRD minister said that Awami League believes in elections and democracy and that’s why it will join in the coming elections as it did in the past.
The Awami League leader expressed his optimism that the main opposition BNP would take part in the next general election under the management of an all-party government led by incumbent Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
At the same time, Ashraf hoped that the 10th parliamentary elections would be free, fair and competitive with the participation of all political parties of the country. “The upcoming elections would be held amid festivity. All the voters would take part in it,” he added.
He said there was no way of transferring power except an election. He also said the people of the country would get their next prime minister within mid-January.
Meanwhile, Hasan Mahmud, the Minister of Forest and Environment, on Sunday said that the government would consider releasing all detained BNP leaders if they withdraw hartal and promise to discard violent activities.
“We trust that the current political imbroglio can be resolved through dialogue, but the detained BNP leaders used inflammatory words openly at different places to instigate violence. The government was compelled to arrest them for their provocative activities. If they relinquish the path of violence and hartal and agree to a dialogue, the government would consider releasing them,” Mahmud told reporters at the Secretariat after a meeting with the acting US ambassador, John Danilowcz, to Bangladesh.
-With The Independent input
