The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) has launched an election boycott campaign terming the 12th parliamentary election as the polls of dummy parties and candidates by Awami League.
The party ran a public campaign and distributed leaflets in Dhaka and elsewhere in the country on Thursday urging people to boycott the vote and not to cooperate with the government.
Along with BNP, the 12-party alliance, Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), Ganatanra Mancha, a faction of Gana Foum and People’s Party also conducted campaigns separately.
Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami held a press conference calling people to build resistance against the upcoming election. The AB Party announced a march programme on Saturday and formation of a human chain on Sunday to boost their vote boycott campaign.
Flanked by party leaders and activists, BNP Senior Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi distributed leaflets to people from different strata including commuters, pedestrians, shopkeepers, transport drivers and rickshaw-pullers, in the capital’s Elephant Road and Baily Road on Thursday.
No such campaign was reported from other parts of the capital.
“People have already rejected the 7 January election. None but the Awami League will go to polling centres. We call all the people to boycott this elation. You yourselves don’t go to vote and ask others not to go either,” Rizvi told newspersons at that time.
Jamaat-e-Islami unveiled a leaflet titled ‘Boycott the election of farce, refrain from casting vote’ on Thursday night and provided it to the party leaders for distribution.
Prior to this, Jamaat acting amir Mujibur Rahman called people to build resistance against the upcoming election at a virtual press conference.
The Jamaat amir alleged that the government has finally been dragging the country to a BAKSAL state after destroying the electoral system and snatching away the people’s voting rights through the last three national elections.
Ganatanra Mancha, which is also waging the simultaneous movement along with the BNP, held a rally in front of the capital’s national press club with its coordinator Zonayed Saki in the chair.
The rally was followed by a procession that paraded from the press club to Motijheel.
Ganatanra Manch was scheduled to bring out a procession in Shahbagh area on Friday afternoon.
A faction of Gana Forum and People’s Party ran a public campaign and distributed leaflets in the capital’s Bijoynagar and Purana Paltan areas on Thursday afternoon.
BNP and like-minded parties have been waging a simultaneous movement demanding cancellation of the polls schedule and election under a neutral government.
As part of its movement, BNP launched a campaign on rejection of vote and non-operation with the government. The party will distribute leaflets across the country on Friday and Saturday, and enforce a dawn-to-dusk nationwide blockade on Sunday.