Apparently shifting blame to the opposition for not reaching a consensus on participatory polls, Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali on Monday said BNP and its alliance partners never negotiated in ‘good faith’ for taking part in the elections, rather they were always insisting on ‘certain pre-conditions’. “Though the opposition was agitating in the name of democracy, they had never engaged in any serious preparation for elections at the ground level, and thus was not ready to participate in the upcoming elections,” he told the European Union (EU) diplomats in Dhaka while briefing them on the current political situation. Ambassadors, High Commissioner and CDAs (Charge d’ Affairs) of the UK, Sweden, the Netherlands, Germany, France, Italy, Spain and Denmark attended at the briefing. Adviser to the Prime Minister for International Affairs Dr Gowher Rizvi and Foreign Secretary M Shahidul Haque were present. On the events that took place on Sunday, the Foreign Minister pointed out the contradiction that the Leader of the Opposition was flying the national flag on her vehicle that she was using for her ‘March for Democracy’, while she termed the current government and the existing constitutional dispensation as illegal. He regretted that the opposition never acted as a responsible partner, and rather decided to put the entire blame for the open terrorist acts committed by them squarely on the government. “As a responsible government, we cannot relinquish our responsibilities and allow the fundamental values and principles of our statehood to be undermined by the indiscriminate terrorist acts perpetrated by the BNP and Jamaat-Shibir to deprive our people from exercising their democratic right to vote during the forthcoming 10th parliamentary elections scheduled for January 2014,” he said. As the issue of diplomats’ security and safety came up in the briefing, Mahmood Ali categorically assured the EU diplomats that the ‘all-party election-time government’ would leave no stone unturned to ensure full safety and security of the Diplomatic Missions in Bangladesh as well as their residences, schools and cultural centers stationed here as per the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations of 1961. He informed the diplomats of the enhanced security measures recently undertaken for the designated diplomatic areas in Gulshan, Baridhara and part of Banani in the capital. – UNB
