Information and Broadcasting Minister Dr Hasan Mahmud said that most of the leaders of BNP want to hold elections. However, BNP is such a party that it does not even allow anyone to be elected to the post of union parishad member.
He told this to journalists after exchanging views with foreign election observers at his office in the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting at the Secretariat on Monday.
US political analyst Terry L Easley and Irish journalist and Political Editor at EU Reporter Nick Powell and Election Monitoring Forum Chairman Abed Ali, its directors — Professor Dr Abul Kalam Azad, Dr Azadul Haque, Mohammad Iqbal Bahar and Awami League Relief and Social Welfare Secretary Aminul Islam Amin — joined the meeting.
Hasan said he apprised the observers that polls will be held under the EC and the current government will only play the role of facilitator.
After the announcement of election schedule, the government does not have any authority on those institutions concerned with holding the polls including field administration, police and public administration, the minister told the observers.
Following the meeting, the minister told journalists: “I think they have understood that a free, fair, beautiful and impartial election is possible in the light of the current constitution under the Election Commission in Bangladesh. Those who came said they were keen to observe the election broadly.”
