Ahead of the upcoming 23rd presidential election, the Jamaat-led 11-party alliance has collected a nomination form for Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) Chairman Col (retd) Oli Ahmad.
The alliance said it is participating in the election to uphold democratic practices, despite believing that the ruling party's candidate is likely to win.
A delegation led by alliance coordinator and Jamaat-e-Islami Assistant Secretary General Hamidur Rahman Azad collected the nomination form from the office of Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) AMM Nasir Uddin at the Election Commission building in Agargaon, Dhaka, on Monday.
Speaking to reporters, Hamidur Rahman Azad said the alliance's candidate would have had a strong chance of winning if members of parliament were allowed to vote freely.
“If there had been reforms, Col (retd) Oli Ahmad would certainly have won. He would have been elected today as a candidate acceptable to everyone. That possibility was bright. But unfortunately for the nation, due to the BNP's duplicity or its lack of a positive mindset towards reforms, the nation was deprived of that opportunity. The state was deprived of the services of a skilled and qualified person,” he said.
Asked why the alliance had fielded a candidate despite the ruling party's candidate being likely to win, Azad said the election was not solely about victory or defeat.
“Here, victory is not the issue. We are bringing forward the democratic process. Article 59 of the Constitution states that administration at all levels of the state should be carried out through elected representatives. The President is the guardian of the state. If there is no contest even here, then democracy is not being practised. We want to restore democratic practices and healthy politics,” he said.
Referring to the 1991 presidential election, Azad said there had been room for a contest at that time because the BNP did not have a two-thirds majority in parliament.
“We allowed the BNP to form the government at that time by supporting it. If all the parties had taken a stand against the BNP candidate, their candidate could have been defeated. That possibility created space for a contest in 1991,” he said.
He said the 11-party alliance had collected the nomination form to highlight what it considers the BNP's “double standards” regarding the state and the people.
“Even though that possibility does not exist this time, we want to bring before the nation the double standards that the BNP has shown towards the state and the people,” Azad said.
He alleged that the BNP had failed to implement the referendum's outcome, saying that doing so would have brought reforms to Article 70 of the Constitution and allowed MPs greater freedom to vote.
“Now MPs will not be able to vote freely. By not giving them that voting right, you have interfered with or imposed control over their rights. We wanted to free the nation from this situation. If the referendum verdict had been implemented, the reflection of proper democracy would have been seen in the presidential election,” he said.
Azad said the alliance wanted to remove what it considers obstacles to people's constitutional rights and had therefore repeatedly called for reforms.
“We want to remove the obstacles that are being created step by step in this state and in the exercise of people's rights. That is why we have talked about reforms. I have also raised the issue in parliament and drawn the government's attention through movement programmes outside parliament,” he said.
Explaining why the reforms had not been implemented, Azad said MPs would not be able to vote freely under the current system.
“If MPs could vote freely, we would have nominated a senior leader and a decorated freedom fighter as our candidate. The nation and the people would have had a worthy candidate, and no candidate of equal stature would have contested against him,” he said.
Azad also claimed that while the Jatiya Party had abstained from voting in the 1991 presidential election, Jamaat had supported the BNP candidate.