Bangladesh News

Khandaker Delwar Hossain, secretary general of detained Chairperson Khaleda Zia backed faction of BNP, said a neutral and credible election is ‘impossible under the present Election Commission (EC)’, as it has lost neutrality by inviting ’so-called reformists’ as representatives of the party to electoral dialogues.

“Their [EC] activities prove they want to have a rigged election but the people of the country will not accept that,” he said at a discussion meeting held in the National Press Club in the capital yesterday adding that his faction of BNP has lost faith in the EC.

The 1980’s leaders of Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal, the student wing of BNP, organised the programme marking the 72nd birth anniversary of late president Ziaur Rahman, founder of the party.

Referring to the three Dhaka University teachers who had been convicted of violating Emergency Power Rules on Tuesday morning just to be released in the afternoon following a presidential pardon, Delwar said the judiciary is still not independent since ‘an adviser may say the teachers would be freed no matter what the verdict was’.

Delwar urged leaders and activists of his faction of BNP to stay ready to make a movement to free all detainees including their chairperson Khaleda Zia a success, adding that the programme of the movement will be announced soon.

Alluding to Awami League (AL), he said some political parties are demanding the election, if possible tomorrow, and they are also supporting the EC initiated electoral reform dialogues keeping a major political party like BNP outside the process. They are talking in favour of the dialogues without even knowing the agenda, he quipped.

Participating in the dialogues will be looked upon as ’suspicious’ as the state of emergency is still in effect and political activities are still restricted, he said adding although ‘a political party’ participated in an election during the autocratic Ershad regime, the people are sure to reject a repetition of that this time around.

“BNP believes in free and fair elections and we want handover of power to elected representatives through such an election,” Delwar said adding according to the constitution of the country an unelected government cannot continue to be in power for long.

Accusing a few advisers to the caretaker government of breaching their oaths, Delwar said the government has started a process of splitting political parties ‘in the name of bringing political reforms and it considers BNP an opponent’. The government arrested several thousand activists of different political parties without any logical reason, he added.

BNP Joint Secretary General Nazrul Islam Khan, Ghoyeswer Chadra Roy, Selima Rahman, Acting Office Secretary Rizvi Ahmed, former lawmaker Mohammad Shahjahan, Sohrab Uddin, and Shamsuzzaman Dudu, Jubo Dal General Secretary Moazzem Hossain Alal, and Chatra Dal General Secretary Shafiul Bari Babu also spoke in the meeting among others, with Babul Chowdhury in the chair.