Election cannot be conducted properly by excluding majority of voters: Kader Siddiqui to EC
Bangladesh’s majority of voters cannot be kept outside the electoral process if a proper election is to be held, Bangabir Kader Siddiqui, president of the Krishak Sramik Janata League said on Sunday.
Addressing the election commission (EC), Kader Siddiqui said, “If you attempt to hold an election while excluding the majority of voters in Bangladesh, you will not be able to conduct that election properly. You must make every effort to ensure voters’ participation.”
He made the remarks today while taking part in the second phase of the EC’s dialogue with registered political parties ahead of the 13th Jatiya Sangsad (national parliament) election.
The dialogue, held at the EC headquarters in Agargaon, Dhaka, was attended by chief election commissioner AMM Nasir Uddin, three other election commissioners, and representatives from five political parties.
During the discussion, Kader Siddiqui said, “As an elderly citizen and a freedom fighter, I wish to offer you my advice: if you attempt to hold an election while excluding the majority of Bangladesh’s voters, you will not be able to conduct that election well. You must make every effort to ensure voters can take part. The Awami League founded Bangladesh. If the Awami League is banned today, the Awami League will be banned… But the Awami League will certainly try to halt or disrupt the election. Some will do it foolishly; some will do it in a smart way.”
Stating that no one will even look towards a referendum on the election day, he added, “If the BNP says ‘no’, and if the Awami League cannot contest the election, a large segment of the population will not even look in that direction at all. Now we are hearing that the Jatiya Party must be banned… In 15 months, professor Yunus did not even for once consider us, the Krishak Sramik Janata League, as a political party. If everyone is kept outside in this way, there is no possibility whatsoever of holding an acceptable election.”
Questioning what the referendum is actually about, Kader Siddiqui said, “People of this country do not know what issue this referendum concerns. And yet four matters have been placed in this referendum. For all four the questions are simply ‘yes’ or ‘no’. If people disagree with two of the four questions, will voters be allowed to express their opinions on those two?”
Criticising the “lockdown” programme announced by the Bangladesh Awami League, whose activities have been banned, for 13 November, Kader Siddiqui said that lockdown is not a political term.
“Sheikh Hasina says she will now re-establish democracy! It pains me to say this, but for the past three terms people could not cast their vote… When Allah becomes displeased enough with a ruler to unseat them, my sister Sheikh Hasina had met that measure in full. She lost power because of divine wrath. I will offer my gratitude for a thousand years to those who rose in the July Movement. But their subsequent actions have not been good,” Kader Siddiqui stated.
He accused the interim government of dividing the country. “There are 40–50 registered parties, yet they sit with only two or three of them. This is neither impartial nor comprehensive. Sheikh Hasina has fallen, but independence has not been extinguished. Sheikh Hasina has fallen, but Bangabandhu has not been erased; the Liberation War has not been lost. We freed this country by chanting ‘Joy Bangla’. You may not like the slogan ‘Joy Bangla’, but to imprison someone for uttering it; what answer will you have to the history of the future? There is no answer.”
Criticising the “lockdown” programme announced by the Bangladesh Awami League, whose activities have been banned, for 13 November, Kader Siddiqui said that lockdown is not a political term.