Bangladesh News

A hitherto undertow in the Awami League (AL)-led 14-party coalition’s movement rose to prominence yesterday as the coalition demanded that President Iajuddin Ahmed relinquishes the office of the chief adviser (CA) to the caretaker government (CG) and appoints a ‘non-partisan’ person to the post.
The coalition also reiterated its demands that Iajuddin removes the present chief election commissioner (CEC) and the three other election commissioners, appoints a ‘neutral person’ as the CEC, and reconstitute the Election Commission (EC).

“Step down immediately from the post of the chief adviser and appoint an acceptable person to the post in accordance with the constitution,” 14-party Coordinator Abdul Jalil urged the president at a news briefing at AL’s Dhanmondi office in the capital after a meeting of the coalition leaders.

Saying that the CEC has ‘lied, taken stand against the interest of the people, and pushed the country towards confrontation’, Jalil who is also the general secretary of AL, demanded that the president takes immediate action to remove Justice MA Aziz from the post of the CEC ‘for his dishonesty’.

He said they will continue enforcing the ‘peaceful’ countrywide blockade until the demands are met. “We will withdraw the blockade only when we will see the caretaker government taking effective initiatives to meet our demands for creating a congenial atmosphere for a free and fair election,” Jalil added.

He thanked the law enforcers, leaders and activists of the coalition, and the people of all walks of life ‘for observing the blockade peacefully’.

The president has completely failed to take any initiative to prove his neutrality since he assumed the post of the CA of the non-party CG ‘violating the constitution’, Jalil said adding that the president-cum-CA is not taking any step to create a level playing field for holding a free and fair election, rather he is issuing threats against them.

Branding Iajuddin and Aziz as BNP partisans, the AL leader said a free and fair election will never be possible under their leadership. There is no alternative but to resign for the CA and the CEC if a free and fair election is to be held, Jalil said urging Aziz to follow the two former CECs — Justice Sultan Hossain Khan and Justice MA Sadek — who resigned in the face of criticism as questions had arisen over their neutrality in 1991 and 1996 respectively.

He said Aziz violated directives of the High Court and Supreme Court by publishing a draft voter list and included ‘1.40 crore fake voters’ on the list. Saying that a credible election is not possible with a fake voter roll, the 14-party leader added that there is still time to bring corrections to the voter list.

Jalil demanded immediate cancellation of all contractual appointments to government posts through a single notice, and a drastic change both in civil and police administrations for creating a congenial atmosphere for a free and fair election.

He said those who got influential posts during the immediate past government will have to be replaced by those who were made officers on special duties (OSD) to keep at bay the influence of the former on the next election, and to ensure neutrality in the administration. He also demanded immediate cancellation of the last minute appointment orders in 30 municipalities by the immediate past government.

He urged the law enforcers to act neutrally for safeguarding the hard-earned democracy. If they fail to act neutrally, the present situation will head towards a confrontational situation, Jalil said.

Among others, senior 14-party leaders Tofail Ahmed, Suranjit Sengupta, Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim, Obaidul Quader, Rashed Khan Menon, Hasanul Haque Inu, Abdul Mannan, Abdur Rahman, Bimal Biswas, Pankaj Bhattacharya, Nurul Islam and Dilip Barua were present at the briefing.