Jatiya Party presidium member Mashiur Rahman Ranga said that party chairman HM Ershad will join the next parliament. “We took part in the 10th parliamentary election as per the directive of the JP chief. He wanted that we contest the January 5 election despite withdrawal of candidates. Our chairman will join Parliament,” Ranga told reporters after a meeting withErshad’s wife, Rawshan Ershad, at her Gulshan residence on Tuesday. Another JP presidium member, Anisul Islam Mahmud, said: “Holding the January 5 election despite the violence is a big success for the government.”
Talking to media persons on different issues, including the just concluded election, his party’s stand and the government, Mahmud added: “I personally favour a mid-term election. Nobody will be happy by dividing the country. We need an understanding before holding a mid-term poll.”
According to him, violence never solves any problem and anything could have happened had the Constitution been changed because of violence. He claimed that the JP took part in the election to protect the continuation of the Constitution.
“The JP is a major political party. We can join the government even as the Opposition in Parliament. There is no constitutional bar to joining the government even while in the Opposition,” he said.
According to him, they were yet to decide who would be the Opposition Leader in the House.
Replying to questions on rigging during the election, the JP leader, who is also the water resources minister in the poll-time government, said: “As per the last election, the vote share of the main Opposition BNP is 40 per cent. As the party boycotted the election this time, its committed voters too stayed away. This is the reason for the low voter turnout in the January 5 election. The election was held in an abnormal situation.”
Courtesy of The Independent
