Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Tuesday reiterated her firm conviction that the people of Bangladesh will cast their votes freely in the next general election and reelect the Awami League.
"The Election Commission may announce the election date and time in one or two days," she said at a ceremony at Ganabhaban.
The event was organized virtually connecting 101 centres across the country as the prime minister virtually inaugurated and laid the foundation of 10,041 structures under 157 development projects, including the Sheikh Hasina Swarani (formerly Purbachal Expressway) and the first elevated expressway in Chittagong, involving around Tk1,00,000 crore, BSS reported.
Under the projects, 4,644 are various development infrastructures and 5,397 are homes for landless and homeless people under the Ashrayan-2 Project across the country under 24 ministries and divisions.
It was the last of a series of ceremonies the prime minister has attended over the last two months to inaugurate a number of mega projects, including the metro rail, Bangabandhu tunnel, and Padma Bridge rail link, as her government’s five-year tenure nears the end.
Addressing the event, Sheikh Hasina said: "The election is approaching. If the people cast votes for us, we will come to power. Even if it does not happen, we will have no regret.”
She said the Awami League never comes to power through undemocratic means.
The premier also thanked the people for voting her party into power time and again and giving it the chance to serve the nation.
She said the BNP-Jamaat alliance does not want to take part in the election and instead wants to create chaos in the country by carrying out arson to make people suffer.
She also said her government has taken all measures, including enacting a new law, to make the election free and fair.
She said: "We have ensured the voting rights of the people through struggle."
Sheikh Hasina also said the Election Commission introduced transparent ballot boxes and prepared a voter list with photographs in line with the proposals of the Awami League.
The premier reiterated her call to the public to stand against arsonists, adding: "I would say that good sense may prevail in these arsonists, and they must stop their destructive activities and arson attacks.
"We are still seeing the suffering of those burned in arson attacks in 2013 and 2014. We do not want people to suffer again.”
Information Minister Dr Hasan Mahmud, Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives Minister Md Tazul Islam, Health Minister Zahid Maleque and Food Minister Sadhan Chandra Majumder were present at the time.
Sheikh Hasina Swarani
In Dhaka, the long-awaited 12.5-km Purbachal Motorway, named after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina (from Kuril flyover point in Dhaka to Kanchan Bridge in Narayanganj), was constructed at a cost of Tk14,000 crore.
The expressway has no stopover points, traffic signals or any other obstacles, so vehicles can ply the entire length in as little as six or seven minutes. It is expected to ease road communication between the capital, Chittagong and Sylhet.
The premier yesterday also opened 100-foot-wide and 26-km-long canals on both sides of Sheikh Hasina Swarani from Kuril to the Balu River.
In Chittagong, three development projects of the Chittagong Development Authority (CDA) and one of the Chittagong Port Authority (CPA) involving Tk6,000 crore were opened.
The projects are the 16-km-long Chittagong elevated expressway, Foujderhat-Bayezid Link Road and Bakalia Express Road. These projects were named after former city mayor ABM Mohiuddin Chowdhury, Jane Alam Donash and Bangamata Fazilatunnesa Mujib.