None can now disrupt Bangladesh’s progress: PM Hasina tells rally

Bangladesh Awami League President and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Wednesday declared from now on none can hinder the advancement of the country as her party is resuming power again following its landslide victory in the January-7 general election.

“Since Awami League can come to power again, none can disrupt the current progress of Bangladesh anymore,” she said while addressing a rally at historic Suhrawardy Udyan in the city.

Bangladesh Awami League arranged the rally in observance of the historic homecoming day of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman after the 1971 Liberation War.

Hasina, who presided over the programme, said many wanted to stop this election, but failed.

“The voter turnout is 41.8 percent in this election even after there were attempts to prevent the voters from casting their votes, which is a very big matter,” she said, adding that a particular party was trying to resist the election when AL and its like-minded parties joined it.

She said none can question the 12th parliamentary election as it was held in fair, free and neutral manners.

“None can say that the votes were cast at night instead of daytime in this election. None has the power to say anything that the votes were rigged because the election was held in very transparent, free and neutral manners,” she said.

The prime minister said her government never interfered into the Election Commission, rather assisted it.

She extended her sincere thanks to the administration and law enforcement agencies including the armed forces who assisted the EC wholeheartedly in holding a free, fair and neutral election.

Reiterating her vision to make a Smart Bangladesh by 2041, Hasina said none can play ducks and drakes anymore with the fate of the people of Bangladesh.

She said the power of the people of Bangladesh is a big power, which was proved once again.

Coming down heavily on the critics, the PM said they kept mum when the military dictators had come to power by rigging votes. “But now they question our democracy and election when we established democracy and the voting rights of the people.

“We’ve consolidated democracy,” she said, adding that the socioeconomic condition has improved, poverty rate declined and per capita income went up as the democratic trend has continued for a long time in the country.

The AL president expressed her gratitude to the people of Bangladesh as they voted for her party spontaneously.

Pointing at the BNP, she said they tried to prevent the voters from going to polling stations, but the government didn’t hinder their campaign.

“But the people of Bangladesh participated in this election, voted for Awami League and accepted this election overcoming hundreds of obstructions and fears…… the people cast votes spontaneously also in the rural areas,” she said.

Talking about Bangabandhu’s homecoming day, Hasina said his speech delivered on January 10, 1972 here in the erstwhile Race Course ground (Suhrawardy Udyan) is a historic document.

“The Father of the Nation in his speech gave all the guidelines over how an independent Bangladesh would run in future,” she said.

AL general secretary Obaidul Quader, its presidium members Mofazzel Hossain Chowdhury Maya and Qamrul Islam, among others, spoke at the rally.

Obaidul Quader on AL’s behalf greeted Sheikh Hasina with flowers as she is going to be the five-time prime minister through AL’s landslide victory in the January-7 general election.

On January 10, 1972 Bangabandhu, the architect of Bangladesh returned to independent Bangladesh via London and New Delhi after 290 days of confinement in Pakistan jail during the country’s Liberation War.