After boycotting the 12th parliamentary polls amid continued countrywide protests in this regard, the BNP has announced the next course of movement demanding another election under a non-partisan and neutral government.
As part of the fresh program, the party will conduct a mass campaign on Monday and Tuesday. Its main ally, Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, too, announced the same program.
Meanwhile, Ganatantra Mancha, a coalition of six political parties, will hold a press conference on Monday.
These come as the country went to the polls on Sunday to get the 12th parliament. The ruling Awami League confirmed its fourth straight victory as 222 candidates won with the Boat symbol, according to unofficial results.
Additionally, 62 Awami League leaders came out victorious as independent candidates, while the Jatiya Party saw 11 of its aspirants win. Three more candidates won the election with other symbols.
The election to the Naogaon-2 constituency was suspended after the death of a candidate, while the Election Commission paused the election results in the Mymensingh-3 seat after the voting in a centre was cancelled.
The BNP and its like-minded parties boycotted the election soon after the polls schedule was announced on November 15 last year.
On the contrary, 28 of the country's 44 registered political parties, including the Awami League and Jatiya Party (JaPa), were in the polls.
BNP’s latest take
In a media briefing at the party chairperson’s Gulshan office in Dhaka on Monday, the party congratulated the people as “they responded to its call to boycott the election by not casting their votes.”
BNP Standing Committee member Dr Abdul Moyeen Khan said: “The country’s people unilaterally and spontaneously rejected the 'dummy election' of January 7. So, first of all, we congratulate the freedom-loving and democracy-loving people of the country on behalf of 63 pro-democracy political parties, including the BNP.
He also said the government failed to take voters to the polling stations with various threats and intimidation. “Despite various abuses of state power, the use of a dummy election commission or controlled media, and various excuses, the reality is that the people of the country unilaterally rejected the January 7 fake election.”
The EC, he said, tried to prove that the election was held peacefully by suspending voting in a centre or two.
“Both the election results and the percent of voter turnout were predetermined by the government. The EC announced the percentage of voter turnout exactly as the government says. It’s a meaningless figure,” said Moyeen.
The BNP leader vowed to continue their movement peacefully until an accountable and elected government is established.
Another BNP standing committee member, Nazrul Islam Khan, said the BNP wanted to establish a government elected by the people’s vote and accountable to them.
“A free and fair election is necessary for it, which didn’t happen yesterday (Sunday). So, people have turned down this election. Everyone is saying the voter turnout that was shown (by the EC) was fake,” he said.
“So, the BNP and other political parties who have a movement for the restoration of democracy demand the immediate cancellation of the dummy election of January 7, the resignation of Sheikh Hasina, and the formation of a polls-time non-party neutral government for holding a national election,” Nazrul said.
“These are now people’s demands. We congratulate and thank people as they made sacrifices in the face of various pressures and allurements and foiled the government’s evil efforts to show a huge turnout by taking them to the voting centres,” he added.
Nazrul also announced the new program for Tuesday and Wednesday.
Looking back to the past
The BNP withdrew from the protests despite being in the middle of a movement after the 10th general election on January 5, 2014, at the request of a Western ambassador to Bangladesh.
In fact, the party skipped joining the election.
Kamal Hossain, who led the Jatiya Oikya Front four-party political party, where the BNP was a key party, boycotted the 2018 parliamentary polls soon after the daylong voting ended on December 30, 2018.
Even though the other members of the alliance planned different programs involving the election results, the BNP declined to join them.
The platform’s movement gradually lost its momentum.
Even though it enforced hartals and blockades alongside mass campaigns centred on Sunday’s election, the BNP is not going to announce tough programs this time around.
The distribution of leaflets, mass rallies, and marches will dominate party activities, sources said.
The protests are also meant to demand the release of all their party leaders and activists.
BNP media wing member Shairul Kabir Khan said they have enforced five spells of hartal and 13 phases of blockade and mass campaign each since October 28.
“Demanding the election to be cancelled and a fresh vote under a neutral government, we’ll go on a mass campaign tomorrow (Monday),” he told Bangla Tribune.
What’s now?
Several political leaders said the BNP and its allies will now start from “the beginning”.
Some of them think that the government will be under pressure due to questions involving the acceptance of the election at home and abroad, lower voter turnout, and inconsistent statements by the EC.
Shahadat Hossain Selim, spokesperson of the 12-Party Alliance, which also boycotted the election, said: “The government is going to face an existential crisis.
“The UN will ‘strangulate’ it. The US will impose economic sanctions on Bangladesh to hamper our economy,” he said.
Also, the secretary general of the Liberal Democratic Party, Selim, said: “To save the country and its people, there is no other way for this illegal government other than resignation.
Selim demanded that a re-election be held as soon as the government resigned.
A senior BNP leader, preferring anonymity, said that the Awami League’s approach is narrating how the BNP’s political stance will be in the days to come.
“It is a must for the BNP to continue its movement. Simultaneously, it will also be in our minds how the party manages to create pressure on the government and help the arrested BNP leaders and activists be freed from jail,” he added.
The final decision may take a few more days as it will be taken to analyze all these issues, the BNP leader said, adding: “But surely, a new leadership will be seen in the party.”
Ganosamhati Andolan chief coordinator Zonayed Saki said: “The people have rejected the one-sided election and initiated a mass resistance.
“Relying on the mass resistance, we want to continue our movement with a new spirit for a fresh election,” he added.
