Next election to be held as per constitution, PM Hasina tells British MPs

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Wednesday said the next election will be held as per country’s constitution while four MPs of the British All-Party Parliamentary Group called on her.

“The next election will be held as per the constitution,” prime minister’s press secretary Ihsanul Karim quoted her as saying while briefing newspersons after the call on at Prime Minister’s Office (PMO).

Four British MPs are - Rushanara Ali, Jonathan Reynolds, Mohammed Yasin and Tom Hunt.

According to the press secretary, the prime minister said the Election Commission of Bangladesh is very much independent.

“We follow your Westminster type of democracy. We don’t have any problem if election observer comes,” she told the British MPs.

Sheikh Hasina mentioned that Awami League (AL), as a political party, has a long tradition of fighting for the restoration of the democracy from the military rulers in the past.

She said the military rulers used to grab the state power using guns and then descended to politics after forming political parties.

Sheikh Hasina urged the British MPs to take initiative to stop Russia-Ukraine war, saying that as a result of sanction and counter sanction, countries like Bangladesh are suffering in many ways.

She said that food grains, essentials and edible oils used to come from Ukraine. “But due to the war, importing of those items are being hindered resulting in its price hike,” she added.

The prime minister also urged the UK entrepreneurs to come up with the investment in the 100 economic zones in Bangladesh.

“We will welcome the UK investment there,” she said.

The British MPs expressed their satisfaction over the unprecedented infrastructural development of Bangladesh as they praised Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina for this development.

“Especially, they highly appreciated the development of the connectivity including construction of Metro Rail, Padma Bridge and Bangabandhu Tunnel,” the press secretary said.

The British parliament members think that these infrastructures will be very helpful for the development of Bangladesh.

Terming Britain as the development partner of Bangladesh, they said Britain wanted to work with Bangladesh for its development.

They mentioned that Bangladeshi diaspora in the UK is very much hard-working, and they are contributing to the British economy.

The British lawmakers also said that the UK will work with Bangladesh on climate change issue.

They also discussed the next general elections in Bangladesh, Ihsanul Karim added.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina appreciated British support to Bangladesh in climate change issue.

She said the government is serious about the climate change issue and it has started taking adaptation and mitigation programmes with its own resources.

She, in this regard, said that Bangabandhu had started the process initially by tree plantation in the coastal belt areas and construction of multipurpose cyclone shelter with providing training to 75,000 volunteers.

Sheikh Hasina expressed her gratitude to the Queen Elizabeth II saying that she always gave special attention to Bangladesh as a guardian of the commonwealth nations.

She also conveyed her regards to the British prime minister.

Ambassador-at-Large M Ziauddin, PM’s Principal Secretary M Tofazzel Hossain Miah and British High Commissioner to Bangladesh Robert Chatterton Dickson were also present.