The BNP yesterday renewed its call to the ruling party for holding talks in response to Awami League General Secretary Syed Ashraful Islam’s statement that the next general elections would be held under the incumbent government’s supervision.
“The Awami League general secretary’s statement has frustrated us. The government might be planning to hold another farcial election like that of January 5 [2014] and we are concerned about that,” Asaduzzaman Ripon, the acting secretary general of BNP, told reporters at a briefing in their Nayapaltan office yesterday.
Ripon said that the country is now going through a crisis and fair election is the way of getting out of this. “Our chairperson [Khaleda Zia] has said that we need a fair election under a neutral government...[We want to say to the ruling party] please give people their voting rights back burying the whimsical and rigid stance.”
The BNP has not been rigid about its demand for a caretaker polls-time administration; now the demand is for an election under a neutral government because a fair election is not possible under the current ruling party, he said.
Ripon prescribed that discussions could be held with all political parties and the civil society for deciding on the nature and duties of the “neutral government.”
The BNP spokesperson and also the international affairs secretary of the BNP, Ripon added: “We want to move away from the politics of division and vengeance.”
Pointing at Gonoforum President Dr Kamal Hossain’s concerns over the situation in the country, Ripon said: “Our party has the same view as the civil society. Our party supports all the initiatives taken for restoring democracy taken by any political parties or civil society organisations.”
