The BNP said it could not trust the Awami League, which has made repeated calls for a dialogue on a poll-time interim administration, alleging that the treasury bench do not know what they want.
“Ministers have been propagating different theories on the poll-time administration. What signal does it pass to us? They actually do not know what they want,” MK Anwar, a member of the BNP’s standing committee, told the Dhaka Tribune.
“If the government is cordial enough to find out a formula for selecting the head of the poll-time administration, it should come up with a written proposal,” he said yesterday. “Otherwise, what will we understand from all these talks?”
He said the constitution could be amended on the basis of a consensus among the political parties, restoring the non-party caretaker government system, under which the last three parliamentary polls were held.
The Awami League, which had forced the then ruling BNP to make the provision of the non-partisan caretaker administration in 1996 to hold general elections, dropped the provision from the charter on June 30, 2011, through the 15th amendment to the constitution.
On May 2, AL General Secretary and LGRD Minister Syed Ashraful Islam said they would send a written proposal for dialogue to the BNP within a day or two.
During the visit of UN Assistant Secretary General for Political Affairs Oscar Fernandez-Taranco, the ruling alliance said it would send a formal proposal to the BNP.
But on May 16, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina made it clear to her colleagues in the 14-party alliance that they would not send any such letter.
ASM Hannan Shah, another standing committee member of the BNP, said some ministers were saying the next elections would be held under Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, and then Syed Ashraf said the leader of the poll-time government would be finalised through discussion.
“It is too early to react. The ruling party leaders’ comments are contradictory. Syed Ashraful Islam earlier said a written proposal would be sent to the opposition within a day or two. We are yet to get that proposal,” he said while talking to the Dhaka Tribune.
The former minister also said a written proposal should come “from the government, not from the Awami League.”
He said: “If a specific proposal comes to us from the government, we will scrutinise to see whether it goes with the people’s interest and only then we will take our decision.”