Awami League President and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has again taken a dig at the opposition BNP for not joining the 2014 parliamentary election, saying that the last two elections were held properly.
In a recent interview with Qatar-based TV channel Al Jazeera, Sheikh Hasina said: “They (opposition) may raise question but they could not prove it. There was proper election and people voted for my party.”
Al Jazeera journalist Nick Clarke interviewed Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on the sidelines of the Fifth United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries (LDC5). The video interview was published on Saturday.
She stated that the BNP had not participated in the 2014 election because “they are all punished because of corruption, arms smuggling, or grenade attack”.
The premier said those who doubt free and fair elections do not want this country to get stable progress and economic development. “They always prefer an unconstitutional government…so that then they can get a chance.”
Asked if her government would restore the caretaker government provision “to oversee the elections so that everybody can see that they are free and fair”, Sheikh Hasina said: “We have [had] a very bad experience about (sic) the caretaker government. Now those parties who want the caretaker government actually they distorted the system. They distorted the system. It's not me.”
She continued: “When BNP was in power in 2001, they not only violated human rights, they killed people, they destroyed our country, destroyed economy. Five times, this country became a corrupt country [in the Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index].
“Not only that; I myself is (sic) also a victim. They tried to kill me several times. There was a grenade attack in the open daylight, [and] 22 of my party members were killed, including women leader Ivy Rahman. And there was no justice, no inquiry, nothing.
“And then terrorism -- [in] 500 places, there were bomb blasts within the country in one hour.”
Sheikh Hasina alleged that after coming to power in 2001, the BNP-Jamaat government had made Bangladesh a failed state. “Because of their misdeed, there was an emergency. I have established people's voting rights. I have established democracy,” she said.
The premier stated that her government had annulled the Indemnity Act, formulated to save the murderers of the Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. “When my family was assassinated, I could not come back to my country, nor did my sister or other relatives. We had to live [abroad] as refugees.”
