Bangladesh News

BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia last night hailed the announcement of the latest polls schedule but stopped short of accepting it on grounds of state of emergency.

“We welcome the Election Commission’s announcement…Now the government should clear its stance on our other demands,” she said at her Gulshan office hours after the EC announced the fresh election schedule following hectic parleys with the Awami League and BNP.

The former premier was speaking at a programme where senior lawyer Khandker Mahbub Hossain and former Progressive Democratic Party leader and a mayoral candidate in recently held Barisal City Corporation election Sharfuddin Ahmed Shantu formally joined the BNP.

Khaleda reiterated the four-party alliance’s demand for suspending clause 91(e) of the Representation of the People Order. The government has to remove all obstacles in the way to holding of a free and fair poll, she said.

It is the government’s responsibility to create a congenial atmosphere for a free, fair and meaningful election, she said, adding that the four-party alliance will go to power if the poll is held in a free and fair manner.

“The election cannot be free, fair and neutral if it is held amidst emergency…The latest city corporation elections have proved this,” she said. “The environment required will be created if the government makes an announcement regarding this matter without further delay.”

In a televised speech Thursday, Khaleda declared that the BNP-led alliance would go to polls if the election is held on December 28.

The former premier said people want an elected government as soon as possible and they are eagerly waiting to cast their votes “as the country has moved 20 years backward in the last two years”.

She said, “An elected government is essential to end the current situation.”

BNP Secretary General Khandaker Delwar Hossain and recently released former Barisal mayor Mujibur Rahman Sarwar also spoke at the programme.

Meanwhile, the BNP-led four-party alliance has started discussion to settle the seat-sharing issue as part of its preparation for the upcoming election, now scheduled for December 29.

Party insiders said Khaleda held a meeting at her Gulshan office last night with alliance leaders, including Jamaat-e-Islami Secretary General Ali Ahsan Muhammad Mojahid, Assistant Secretary General Muhammad Kamaruzzaman, Bangladesh Jatiya Party Chief Andaleev Rahman Partho and Secretary General Shamim Al Mamun.

Before the meeting, she talked to a large number of party leaders from across the country who hope to get nominations.

Khandaker Delwar yesterday told reporters that BNP is ready with candidates for all 300 constituencies but they will share seats with three other parties of the alliance.

BNP Office Secretary Rizvi Ahmed told The Daily Star that his party is yet to decide on selling nomination papers to party’s aspirant candidates.

“I am ready to sell nomination papers but I am yet to get the chairperson’s nod in this regard,” he said.

Party sources, said leaders of Bangladesh Jatiya Party and Islami Oikya Jote may have to take part in the election as BNP candidates since both the parties failed to get EC registration.

25 EX ARMY OFFICERS

JOIN BNP

Twenty-five retired army officers yesterday joined BNP with the intention to contest the upcoming elections with BNP tickets.

Led by Lt Col (retd) Mohammad Abdul Khaleque, the officers met the BNP chairperson at her Gulshan office last night and expressed their loyalty to her leadership.

Brig Gen Nasiruddin Sarwar, Birg Gen Nasiruddin Ahmed, Lt Col AHM Ruhul Islam, Lt Col M Badiur Rahman, Col Mohammad Shahjahan Mia are among the people who joined BNP.

REFORMISTS LEADERS ASSAULTED
Rustam Ali Farazi, a former BNP lawmaker, was assaulted at BNP chairperson’s Gulshan office last night.

Several BNP and Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal leaders assaulted him as he was about to leave the office. They termed Farazi collaborator of the present government and accused him of being loyal to expelled BNP leader Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan.