The Bangladesh Nationalist Party chairperson, Begum Khaleda said on Monday that free and fair elections had never been held under the Awami League government.She referred to Bhola by-election which, she said, was marked by terrorism and occupying polling centers.
Khaleda Zia extended her support to the students campaigning for cancellation of the quota system in the public service recruitment tests and said any of them disqualified by the present government would get job if her party came to power.
Addressing a pre-iftar discussion, Khaleda said the people would give the incumbents a befitting reply in election if it was held under a non-party government.
Islami Oikya Jote, a partner of BNP-led 18-party alliance, hosted the iftar at a city hotel which was preceded by a discussion on the life and works of the late Fazlul Huq Aminee, former chairman of IOJ.
Islami Oikya Jote chairman Abdul Latif Nezami, among others, addressed the pre-iftar discussion attended by 18-party alliance leaders and workers.
The BNP chairperson castigated the prime minister for her remarks that the anti-quota protesters would be identified from video footages and disqualified at viva voce of the BCS examinations.
Khaleda said termed legitimate the students’ demands saying that they would be provided with job on the basis of merit.
She said the qualified students who would be dropped by the present government would get job on the basis of merit if her party came to power.
She branded the incumbent Election Commission as ‘spineless’ saying that it had no courage to check irregularities and had no power to hold fair polls.
The BNP chief accused the Awami League activists of killing people and grabbing land and property of religious minorities and said the present government would have to answer for its ‘misdeeds’ and ‘corruption’.
She also accused the government of dividing the nation through conspiracies in the name of Islam. ‘Those who believe in Islam cannot indulge in wrongdoing and Islam has no links with militancy,’ she said.
The BNP chief also alleged that there had been massive irregularities in the five city corporation elections.
She said the ruling party had plotted to manipulate the results of the city corporation polls in favour of its candidates.
‘But all its attempts went in vain because of strong resistance by the 18-party alliance and the people,’ she said.
– Agency
