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Download PDF The BNP yesterday rejected the schedule for local-body elections while the Awami League (AL) termed it a ‘conspiratorial and farcical move’.
The Jatiya Party (Ershad), however, welcomed the decision to hold city corporation and municipality polls before parliamentary elections and urged the government to declare the schedule for upazila elections too.
The Bikalpadhara Bangladesh said they would contest the elections provided other parties also take part in it.
UNB adds: The AL’s acting President Zillur Rahman demanded immediate cancellation of the election schedule.
“The government has not done it right by announcing the schedule for local-body elections. We think it’s a farcical and conspiratorial move. It must be withdrawn,” he told reporters after a meeting with a faction of the Bangladesh Islami Oikya Jote at his residence in Gulshan neighbourhood.
Zillur also demanded that the government fully lift the state of emergency before the polls, as “partial withdrawal is not enough to create a pre-election democratic environment in the country.”
He, however, stopped short of saying whether the AL would boycott the local-body polls should the government remain adamant about going ahead with it.
“We’ll take our decision (about contesting the local polls) after studying the future developments. Time will say what would be our next steps,” he said.
Zillur said the caretaker government cannot declare schedule for the elections because it has no constitutional right to that effect.
“The caretaker government has authority to arrange only national elections. But defying public opinion, it has declared the election schedule (for local bodies). It’ll be no good for Bangladesh,” he said.
Zillur feared that the long-awaited general elections would be delayed if local elections are held first which would prove catastrophic for the country’s democracy.
He expressed the hope that they would be able to reach a consensus on local elections at their upcoming dialogue with the government on July 3.
About the government’s decision to partially lift the state of emergency, Zillur said the emergency must be removed fully as per the demand of all political parties.
“If you cannot paste a poster, bring out a procession, chant a slogan, how come elections could be held? Democracy cannot sustain without proper communication between politicians and voters,” he said.
The BNP also rejected the schedule, saying the Election Commission (EC) overstepped its constitutional mandate by announcing that local elections would be held on August 4.
“The chief election commissioner cannot announce the polls schedule this way,” the party’s acting office secretary Rizvi Ahmed told UNB over the telephone. “This announcement is unconstitutional and illegal”, he said adding that the move is “part of a well-designed conspiracy.”
“People won’t accept it,” he said.
Jamaat Secretary General Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojahid hoped that the EC would withdraw the schedule because “the people would not accept it.”
“The government and the Election Commission have failed to respect the public opinion,” he said in a statement, adding that holding the parliamentary elections first is constitutionally mandatory.
Earlier on Thursday, the BNP-led alliance leaders vowed to resist holding any polls before the national elections.
The BNP’s standing committee appointed acting secretary general Maj (retd) Hafizuddin Ahmed in his reaction told reporters that there is no problem if municipality polls are held ahead of the parliamentary elections.
“But, it would be better if the city corporation and upazila polls are held after the parliamentary elections,” he said
Workers Party President Rashed Khan Menon said both the government and the EC have overstepped their constitutional authority by announcing the schedule.
“It’d create unexpected complications and would hamper the general elections,” he told The Daily Star last night.
Welcoming the schedule, the Jatiya Party (Ershad), said it would take part in all local government elections under the caretaker government.
“Those who threatened to resist local-government polls are afraid of electoral defeat,” the party’s Chairman HM Ershad said while addressing his party leaders in Rangpur’s Pirganj upazila.
He also asked the government to hold upazila elections soon.
Bikalpadhara Bangladesh President Prof AQM Badruddoza Chowdhury said his party would take part in the city corporation and municipality polls if other parties also contest it.
Stating that the past three governments did not allow people to elect their representatives by not holding upazila polls, he called on the caretaker government hold upazila elections.
Former upazila chairmen have also voiced their concern that those political parties would again back off from upazila polls if they go to power, he said while addressing Bikalpadhara leaders from Tangail, according to a press release.
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