The BNP on Sunday said its clean sweep in all four city corporation elections was the reflection of people’s doubt and speculation toward the current government.
The victory in the city corporation polls would intensify the opposition’s ongoing movement to realise the demand for bringing in the caretaker government system to oversee the next general election, said BNP acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir.
The poll results are a kind of evaluation of the four-and-a-half-year activities of the Awami League-led 14-party alliance government, said Fakhrul Islam, also the spokesperson of the party.
“People of the four city corporations supported our demands for which we have been campaigning for the last couple of years especially after scrapping the caretaker government system.”
This polls result is a report card of the government and a projection of the next general election,” Fakhrul told the Dhaka Tribune on Sunday morning.
The former state minister for agriculture alleged that the government is plotting to rig the next polls seeing how they are rearranging the administration and had sacked many meritorious government officials.
The government should resign after seeing results of the four city corporation polls, Fakhrul said at a press conference in Dhaka on Sunday.
“People have clearly said ‘no’ to this government. If the government believes in democracy they should resign.”
BNP-backed mayoral candidates bagged all four city corporation polls by a huge margin, though all four seats went to the AL -backed candidates in last elections.
“Grassroots level leaders as well as central leaders are extremely cheerful and will organise the party more sincerely now, and there is no scope of deviating from our basic demand for restoration of the caretaker government system,” Fakhrul told the press.
About the role of the Election Commission (EC), he said: “The EC has done well but it still has a long way to go. Our demand is clear that the EVMs should not be used and the army should be deployed in the next elections.”
When asked, BNP Standing Committee Member Abdul Moyeen Khan said in the parliamentary form of a government, the local government elections are rather different in nature from the general elections.
“Nonetheless the countries whose models we basically follow, e.g. the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada indicate that the local government elections are usually the precursors of the shape of things to come in the general elections to follow,” he told the Dhaka Tribune.
The outcomes of the local government elections clearly indicate the future government in the central level also, he said.
“I believe the signals we received on Sunday in Bangladesh is no different from that the people of Bangladesh have unequivocally expressed their opinion against the present government in these election spread across the country in four different locations.”
The BNP leader also said: “If the government or the opposition does not take a cue from the elections, they will both be making a grave mistake in respect of the political directions in Bangladesh in the near future.”
The BNP this time under the leadership of Khaleda Zia has been working towards bringing a qualitative change in our confrontational politics, he added.
“My assessment of the outcome of the four city corporation polls Saturday would be that the people of Bangladesh have expected our policy of the peaceful democratic movement to motivate the people against the massive failures of the government rather than opting for a politics of violence and disruption as usually pursued by Awami League.”
“In that sense I can say that this victory will further strengthen BNP’s peaceful movement for establishing a neutral non-partisan election-time government at the end of the tenure of this political government. What this election essentially implied as the people has accepted our views on having a neutral non-partisan government in order that the country can have a free, fair and acceptable election,” noted the think-tank of the BNP.
