The Bangladesh Nationalist Party on Sunday said that no elections of blueprint would be allowed in the country. Addressing a gathering, the acting BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir iterated that general elections could not be held without a non-party government being in place.
He said that people would not allow any ‘ill attempt’ regarding the elections. The
Dhaka city BNP organised the rally at the National Press Club to protest at ‘indecent remarks; the prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, and her son Sajeeb Wazed Joy had made about the BNP’s senior-vice chairman Tarique Rahman.
Fakhrul criticised the Election Commission for amending the electoral code of conduct to hold the elections with the partisan government being in office without discussing it with political parties.
He said that the BNP would not accept the amendment to the electoral code of conduct.
The Election Commission has recently drafted the amendment to the electoral code of conduct with provisions for the prime minister and ministers being able to campaign for their their candidature in the general elections.
Fakhrul said that the ruling Awami League had become certain that it had been isolated from people and it wanted to hold elections under the partisan government.
He said that people had given their verdict that they would not accept any elections if not held under a non-party government.
Fakhrul brushed aside the prime minister’s claim that she had made at an iftar party of journalists at the National Press club that she was the only leader who had opposed the government that was installed during the January 11, 2007 political changeover.
He said that the prime minister’s statement was untrue and people had not forgot that the present prime minister had claimed that the Fakhruddin-Moeen Uddin government was the outcome of their movement.
He said that the BNP thought that the prime minister was deceiving with people by making such untrue statements.
Fakhrul called for a national unity to hold the next general elections under a non-party government. He also criticised the prime minister for her remarks against Tarique Rahman. He said that she had become unnerved.
The city BNP convener Sadeque Hossain, who presided over the gathering, said that elections of blueprint would be resisted. He said that if necessary, a movement tougher than the ‘oars and sticks’ agitation of 2007 would be launched to push for their demand.
Leaders of the BNP and its front organisations Moudud Ahmed, Mirza Abbas, Rafiqul Islam Mia, Barkatullah Bulu, Ruhul Kabir Rizvi, Abdus Salam, Syed Moazzem Hossain Alal, Khairul Kabir Khokan, Shamimur Rahman Shamim, Shirin Sultana and Habib-un-Nabi Khan Sohel also spoke.
-With New Age input
