Country seems to be heading towards one-party rule: Taimur Alam

The MP candidate from the Narayanganj-1 constituency in the 12th general elections and secretary general of the Trinomul BNP, popularly known as king’s party, Taimur Alam Khandaker Wednesday alleged the recently concluded 12th parliamentary election was staged.

“We won’t take part in a staged election such as this anymore. The government contested against the government in the polls. The candidates with the boat symbol and the independent candidates both were from the ruling party. It seems that the government is heading towards one-party rule,” he regretted.

Taimul Alam Khandaker, a former leader of key opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party, was speaking to the newspersons at the office of the superintendent of police (SP) in Narayanganj in the afternoon.

He went there to file a complaint in writing over an attack on the house of one of his female supporters.

Awami League candidate Golam Dastagir Gazi won the election from the Narayanganj-1 constituency with 156,483 votes while his nearest candidate Md Shahjahan Bhuiyan got 45,075 votes.

Taimur Alam Khandaker lost even his security money securing only 3,190 votes which is even lower than the number of the cancelled votes from this constituency.

Taimur Alam Khandaker said he will call all the party candidates across the country to Dhaka and will sit with the party chief before stating the party's official reaction on the election.

He said, “Trinomul BNP was on the street and will be doing the same in the future. We will discuss everything in detail with the party chief. We will call all the candidates to Dhaka, take reports from them and present them to the prime minister.”

Referring to the poll result in his constituency, the Trinomul BNP secretary general said, “The land grabbers in Rupganj were united against me. They thought they wouldn't be able to take control if I was elected as I stood against them right from the start. It was unfortunate that the people who lost their lands to these land grabbers did not come forward out of fear.”

He said, “Fair politics is not possible for our generation in this country. The next generation won’t be able to do that either. Only the third generation stands a chance to fix the country.”

“Those who are in power think they will be imprisoned if they are defeated in the polls. This is the system of Bangladesh. The party that comes to power takes revenge by imprisoning the opposition party leaders and activists. The election commission doesn’t have any power under a partisan government.”

Taimur Alam further expressed, “It is evident from the way this election was rigged that the election commission basically doesn’t have any power. They don’t have any manpower. To accomplish something, they depend on the administration, which is loyal to the government."

"You have heard what the EC secretary said. Do you think a fair election was held after hearing that? He said messages had been sent to the DCs (deputy commissioners). The results were already prepared by the EC,” he added.

The Trinomul BNP secretary general said, “Barrister Nazmul Huda mentioned about the caretaker government. We will check that. We won’t take part in any staged election anymore. Trinomul BNP will continue with its movement on the streets. We must be on the streets if we want to sustain in such an electoral system.”