Election in due time no matter who joins it: Hasina

Bangladesh Awami League (AL) president and prime minister Sheikh Hasina on Monday said the next 11th parliamentary elections would be held in due time, no matter whichever party joins it.

“We’ve nothing to do if they don’t come to the polls. What can we do if they [BNP] don’t come to the polls? I can’t withdraw the case. We didn’t file the case,” the ruling AL president told a media briefing at her official Ganabhaban residence.

The press conference was organised to give the details about the outcome of her just-concluded visit to Italy and the Vatican City.

“Elections will be held in due time, no matter which political joins it or which party don’t,” said Hasina in response to a query what would happen if her party’s arch rival Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) does not join the next polls following the jail sentence of its chairperson and former prime minister Khaleda Zia. 

“The elections will be held in due time and the people, too, will exercise their franchise. If anyone tries to resist, they will not be able to do so. They had tried to resist the 2014 polls too, but all to no avail,” Hasina spoke of her rival BNP.

“What can we do if they [BNP] don't go to the polls without the convict? I did not give the verdict and I will not be able to withdraw it... The case was filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission during the regime of the caretaker government,” she added.

She said every political party has its own mechanism in a multiparty democracy.

She went on to say, “The court has given the verdict. We have nothing to do. Even though, the government is being blamed. Why?”

The AL president expressed her irritation at the BNP’s decision of appointing its exiled senior vice chairperson Tarique Rahman as acting chairman.

“Yes, it is usual that the senior most vice chairman will act as the chairman of a party in absence of the chairman. But their acting chairman is an absconding accused and he is not even in the country,” said Sheikh Hasina.

She further said, “Isn’t there any single person [within the BNP] in the country who can be made the acting chairman of the party?”