Jatiya Party chairman HM Ershad on Saturday said his party won’t take part in the next general election under the present Election Commission (EC).
“I wanted to make the Election Commission stronger; the present EC does not have people’s confidence in it. How can we take part in polls under it since it has lost its power,” he said while addressing an Eid-reunion and discussion meeting at a hotel in the city.
Terming the parliamentary democracy “totally abortive,” he called for introduction of presidential form of government to remove instability from the country. He said the system of government and the methods for conducting the general elections should be changed.
The JP chief said politics should have a room for flexibility and understanding and criticized Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s statement that her government would not deviate at all from the current Constitutional provisions on the holding of the next general election in the country.
Ershad said observance of strike is a constitutional as well as a democratic right of the people; so any measure taken by any government to make strike illegal or ban it is totally unacceptable as it goes against the very fundamental provision of the Constitution of the country.
The Jatiya Party chairman also criticized the Awami League-led government for its failure to protect the life and property of the people. He said some politicians and other people who raised their voice against the government or spoke the truth went to prison and became victims of “forced disappearance.”
Ershad also talked about the recent murder of a police officer and his wife in the city and held the politicians responsible for the incident. “The society and politicians have created the Oishees as many of our politicians themselves are directly or indirectly involved with drug businesses,” he observed.
Presided over by JP presidium member SM Faisal Chistee, the meeting was also addressed, among others, by party secretary general ABM Ruhul Amin Howlader, Kazi Zafar Ahmed, MA Sattar, Fakir Ashraf, Tajul Islam Chowdhury, Mostafa Jamal Haider, Ziauddin Ahmad Bablu and joint secretary Advocate Rezaul Islam Bhuiyan.
-With The Independent input
