Govt must resign for inclusive polls, says Fakhrul
BNP has renewed its call to the government to step down for ensuring an inclusive and acceptable general election under a non-partisan interim administration.
“If the government does not quit power paving the way for inclusive and acceptable polls, the people will intensify movement immediately,” acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir warned.
Alamgir made the plea in a written statement sent to the media on Wednesday afternoon. The government has indulged in politics of confrontation by letting loose joint forces to daunt the ongoing antigovernment movement. It should take the path of compromise, understanding and peace without wasting time, he added.
The government has plunged into a massive corruption and misdeeds during its last five-year administration. Now, it is trying to hide the records of corruption using the state machinery, he blamed.
Several ministers and leaders of the ruling Awami League are telling that dialogue was on with the opposition to ensure their participation in the 11th parliamentary poll instead of the 10th one, he said.
“Such type of comment is politically motivated as we had meeting thrice with the four-member delegate of the government over the 10th parliamentary poll and the poll-time administration,” he said.
Now, the government is staging a drama creating a smokescreen in the name of the 11th parliamentary poll. This is nothing but an outcome of the government’s political bankruptcy, he opined.
Alamgir has criticised the government for its declaration that a total of 154 MP aspirants as elected unopposed in the 10th parliamentary poll, which is scheduled for January 5.
Terming the step as suicidal for Awami League, Alamgir said the people have already rejected the stage managed election and waged a tough movement against the government.
In a bid to thwart the antigovernment movement, the government has let loose joint forces on the streets who are engaged in harassing the opposition party men by raiding their houses across the country, he blamed.
Postponement of the poll schedule in the interest of an inclusive and acceptable poll is needed to bring back the country’s political stability, he stressed.
Drawing the government’s attention to the next course of dialogue over the poll-time administration, Alamgir said three meetings to place with the meditation of the UN envoy.
However, the government has not been showing any eagerness to sit across the table to overcome the prevailing political crisis centring the poll-time administration, he added.
Besides, BNP standing committee member Nazrul Islam Khan has blamed the government for turning the country into a police state saying it has become crazy to cling on to power through illegal means.
In the period from 1972 to 1975, Awami League wanted to hang on to power by launching repressive measures on the people. The party wants to do the same using state machineries including the Election Commission, he alleged.
The local and international communities have already got fed up with the government for its rigid stance on holding the next general election under a party management, he said.
Khan was addressing a press conference held at the party chief Khaleda Zia’s Gulshan office in the capital on the second day of the fourth spell of countrywide road-rail-waterway blockade programme on Wednesday.
Responding to a query, he said representatives of different diplomatic missions in Bangladesh did not go to the National Mausoleum on the country’s victory day in protest against the government move to hold a lopsided national poll under its own management.
-With The Independent input
