BNP, the main opposition party in Bangladesh, has said it will not take part in election that would be a trap if held under the present government. BNP spokesperson Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said this asserting that his party would stick to its stand against all odds.
“The Prime Minister, while in London, had said opposition leaders would be included in a small interim poll-time government. But she has moved away from that to say the polls will be held under her and the parliament too will remain in effect,” Fakhrul said in a discussion on Wednesday afternoon.
“Our backs are on the wall. There are only few weeks left. The people will not vote in an election held under the current Prime Minister,” said Fakhrul, urging leaders and activists to ‘fully prepare’ for a hard-line campaign.
“The BNP will not step into this trap laid by the Awami League,” he said. The programme was arranged at Dhaka’s Diploma Engineers Institute to commemorate BNP Senior Vice-Chairman Tarique Rahman’s release from prison.
The discussion aired a video of Tarique Rahman speaking in a London hotel last month. Mirza Fakhrul said, “They have tailored the Constitution to suit their needs. It is the government’s intention to start one-party rule by ensuring their stay in power.”
He alleged the Prime Minister was trying to fool the people by claiming that the election in Bangladesh would be held like in other democracies of the world.
Fakhrul asked the PM whether the opposition was so badly abused in any other country. “Do the governments there abduct and kill opposition leaders?”
When asked why a neutral poll-time government was necessary, he said, “We want it to ensure people’s voting rights and not because we believe it will put us in power. But the government doesn’t want that. It knows their candidates will lose in a neutral election.”
Fakhrul said, therefore, it was best to topple the government from power. He termed Tarique Rahman, the eldest son of BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia, a symbol nationalist power, “His politics is clearly different from that of Awami League’s.”- bdnews24.com
