Alleging that the government was desperate to hold a one-sided election to evade humiliating defeat, BNP acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir on Saturday said attempts to arrange such polls would not succeed.
Addressing a public rally at Ruhia High School ground in Sadar upazila in the district, Fakhrul said their hope would not be fulfilled as the BNP would not allow any such stage-managed polls, according to UNB.
“The next national elections must be held after restoring the caretaker government system as it is not a demand of only the BNP now; it has turned into a mass demand.”
The BNP leader urged the government to accept the demand to save the country from confrontation. “Still there is time to accept the people’s demand and save yourself as well as the countrymen.”
Raising issues of alleged corruption of the incumbent Awami League-led government, Fakhrul said the government pushed the country’s economy into shambles by looting Sonali Bank, Basic Bank and the share market.
In Dhaka, BNP standing committee member Dr Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain said the party Chairperson Khaleda Zia would announce the opposition’s final agitation programmes from the October 25 rally to be in the capital to force the government to hold the next general election under a non-party government.
“We will have no alternative to announcing programmes. If any anarchic situation is created during the October 25 rally, the government will have to bear the responsibility,” he told the closing ceremony of Batexpo 2013.