BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir terming Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s call a show, said there is no reason to accept her call as she failed to keep her promises earlier.
"She assured us that no new arrests would be made, no fresh case would be filed and a level-playing field would be ensured. But she couldn't live up to any of her promises. So, now her call for national unity is nothing but rhetoric," he observed.
He reiterated his call for fresh elections under a non party caretaker government.
Fakhrul made the remarks in briefing reporters at BNP's Naya Paltan central office on Saturday, responding to the prime minister’s televised address to the nation stressing the need for national unity to take the country forward, reports UNB.
Sheikh Hasina’s address to the nation has manifested her 'guilty conscience' as she tried to justify her party's victory and Oikya Front's defeat.
"I have heard her (PM's) speech. I think, she delivered such a speech out of a guilty conscience. It seems to me she has perhaps realised what they did (in the election) was not right. So, she's explained why BNP performed so poorly and they (AL) did so well. Though it's her own explanation," Fakhrul said.
On Friday evening, the Prime Minister addressed the nation following the formation of her new government earlier this month as Awami League got a landslide victory in the December-30 parliamentary elections where she urged the elected members of parliament from the opposition party (BNP-led Jatiya Oikya Front) to take their oath and join parliament.
The BNP leader said their party's elected MPs will neither go to parliament nor take oath as they have already rejected the election results.
Fakhrul said the local media and other people concerned are not brave enough to talk about the real incidents that took place during the election. "But the international media and different countries through their reports have exposed it as an eye wash, a cruel mockery with the nation.”
He said the December-30 election has badly affected the nation as people have lost their confidence in the election process, the Election Commission and the state, after the way the state machinery and the agencies were abused during the election.
The BNP leader also accused Awami League of putting the entire state against the people to manipulate the elections.
