BNP Chairperson’s adviser Amir Khosru Mahmud Chowdhury, while speaking at a bdnews24.com-organised roundtable on Saturday, said that the Jan 5 election was not ‘politically’ valid.
“This is valid constitutionally, but not politically. In no way was it an election which represented the people’s will.
“The right to vote in the election cannot be there unless an election which is participated by all is ensured,” said the former Commerce Minister.
He also said no government, including its own, has survived unless they came to power through polls under an ‘impartial government’.
Chowdhury claimed the caretaker dispensation conducting national polls since 1996 was set up through a ‘national consensus’.
“The Awami League asked for it, agitated for it and BNP accepted it. All parties agreed to the arrangement and that is how it became law after a bill was placed,” said Chowdhury.
“So if it has to go now, it cannot be abrogated unilaterally as the Awami League has done. The caretaker system can go only if there is a national consensus.”
The BNP leader however said he was not using the word ‘caretaker’ — rather he would insist on the term ‘impartial’.
He said that no government in Bangladesh has survived a full term unless they were elected in polls which was conducted by an ‘impartial government’.
Commerce Minister and senior Awami League leader Tofail Ahmed said the present government had proved its ability to hold ‘free and fair polls’ before the Jan 5 polls.
“So many city corporation polls were held and they were done fairly. That is why the Opposition candidates could win,” Ahmed said.
He said there were ‘other reasons’ for the Opposition to boycott the polls — it had nothing to do, in his opinion, with the apprehension of rigging or electoral malpractices.
The BNP leader said the government was not taking any interest in starting a dialogue even after the Opposition has stopped its agitation to create a proper atmosphere.
Chowdhury said the government will have to ‘stop state terror’ to create the right climate to start a dialogue to achieve a consensus.
“You talk of Opposition violence but state terror is a much bigger threat,” he said.
-BDnews24
