Stop ‘game’ in the name of polls schedule announcement: BNP

BNP on Tuesday urged the government to stop a ‘game’ in the name of announcing a schedule for the 12 parliamentary elections by the current ‘partisan’ Election Commission (EC).

Speaking at a virtual press briefing, BNP Senior Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi also urged the government to quit power accepting the opposition’s demand for holding the next polls under a non-party government.  

“The government has become crazy to hold a lopsided election ignoring the demands of people. Sheikh Hasina has started the process of announcing the election schedule illegally by the Election Commission which is subservient to her,” he said. 

The BNP leader further said, “We would like to issue a strong warning to stop this game in the name of election schedule. Step down first and hand over power to a caretaker government.”

The BNP leader also called upon the government to cancel the Election Commission before the announcement of the election schedule. 

He also warned that the consequences will be dire if the opposition’s one-point demand is not accepted.

“There will be no election in Bangladesh as per the schedule (to be announced by the current EC). There will be no elections without a caretaker government. People will not allow any farcical and stage-managed election on the soil of Bangladesh,” Rizvi said.

Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina the next national election is drawing nearer and the EC is likely to announce the polls schedule in a day or two.

The Election Commission is likely to hold a meeting on Wednesday to finalise its decision on announcing the schedule for the upcoming national election.

EC Jahangir Alam said on Tuesday said he will hold a press briefing on Wednesday morning to inform when and how the schedule would be announced.

Rizvi said Awami League always promote the culture of spreading hatred against its opponents as the party never believes in social harmony or democracy “That is why they attack their opponents with offensive and indecent language and repress them in various ways. But Awami League never thinks that this coercive misrule can be overturned at any moment."

He called upon the leaders and workers of BNP and like-minded parties to peacefully take to the streets to make their blockade programme- from Wednesday morning to Friday morning—a success.

"This blockade is for restoring democracy and freedom of speech and for ensuring a free, fair transparent and credible election. This blockade is also a part of the democratic struggle to get back people’s ownership of the country. Let‍‍`s all make this blockade a success," the BNP leader said.

He claimed that the ruling party activists were indulging in arson violence during the opposition’s blockade programme to shift the blame onto BNP.

Rizvi claimed that more than 420 BNP leaders and activists were arrested in different parts of the country in the last 24 hours as of 5 pm on Tuesday.