No election sans BNP in country: Fakhrul

Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir on Thursday said the Bangladesh Awami League government should work out ways and means to bring the BNP in the general elections.

Speaking at a protest rally at the National Press Club in the capital, the BNP secretary general said issuing threat to cancel (BNP) registration would not work out.

“There will be no election in the country unless a neutral election-time government is formed to oversee the general elections,” Fakhrul iterated.

The BNP organised the rally, chaired by its vice chairman Md Shahjahan, in protest against the disappearance and the killing of its leaders and activists.

Fakhrul said the BNP is an election-oriented party.

“It wants to join the elections, but that path [for joining the polls] should be opened. It won’t be acceptable that the Awami League stays in power during elections and plays a role [in its own favour],” said the BNP leader.

He said no election can be held unless the BNP joins it.

The BNP leader was also critical of the AL president and prime minister Sheikh Hasina. “Making country people maimed and making the country’s politics disabled [dysfunctional], you [Hasina] went to Bhutan to join international conference on autism.”

He termed Hasina’s India visit an utter failure and said this [AL] government would sign no agreements other than Teesta water sharing deal had the people been with it.

“As this [AL] government is isolated from the people, it wants to cling to the state power using the path of killing, abduction and enforced disappearance,” said Fakhrul.

The BNP leader alleged as much as over 500 leaders and activists of the party, including the party’s then organising secretary Ilias Ali, were abducted during these regimes of AL.