BNP fears predetermined election result

The BNP leader vowed to “reinstate democracy under the leadership of Begum Khaleda Zia and Tarique Rahman.”

Close PlayerUnibots.inBNP Standing Committee member Nazrul Islam Khan on Saturday said that a game is being played in the name of the forthcoming national election, and its result has already been decided.

“And, the result will be announced on January 7,” he said while talking to journalists in the morning after paying tribute to the martyred war heroes of 1971 at the National Martyrs' Memorial in Savar, on the outskirts of Dhaka.

Demanding that the election be suspended, he said: “I want the authorities to stop this game. The people should not participate in this game. I request those associated with this election to grow democratic and humane values in them.”

This BNP leader added: “We, the BNP, have repeatedly re-established democracy in the country. Our leader, martyred president Ziaur Rahman, did it by fighting against one-party rule. 

“After fighting for nine years against Ershad's military dictatorship, our leader Begum Khaleda Zia re-established parliamentary democracy in the country. However, there is no democracy today,” he said.

The BNP leader vowed to “reinstate democracy under the leadership of Begum Khaleda Zia and Tarique Rahman.”

Another standing committee member of the BNP, Dr Abdul Moyeen Khan at the memorial said that hundreds of thousands of people of the then East Pakistan shed their blood and sacrificed their lives for an independent Bangladesh, democracy and economic emancipation.

“But the Awami League has killed democracy prematurely, betraying the crores of people of this country. They have destroyed the economy of Bangladesh through extreme corruption,” he said. 

Moyeen said the 180 million people of Bangladesh have to ask the Awami League why it has established a one-party dictatorial government after 52 years of independence, by destroying the ideology of the Liberation War when it claims to be the pro-Liberation War forces. 

Later in the day, hundreds of BNP leaders and activists gathered in front of their party’s central office at Naya Paltan in Dhaka for the first time since the October 28 violence.

They brought out a rally marking the Victory Day at around 2:30pm, encompassing Moghbazar before ending it at Naya Paltan.

However, the BNP central office premises were deserted of party men. Heavy presence of police was seen in the area from the early morning.

The office, which has been locked since late October 28, was not opened on Saturday either.

Addressing a brief rally there, Nazrul Islam Khan again commented on the general election.

“The Awami League government is going to stage a mockery in the name of the January 7 polls,” he said, adding that the country was not liberated for holding such a joke of an election.

The BNP will enforce a daylong countrywide hartal on Monday to protest the polls schedule. The 12-hour hartal will begin at 6am.

It will be the fourth hartal by the opposition since October 29, to go with eleven blockades. 

BNP Senior Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi virtually announced the hartal on Saturday.

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