BNP has no outline on politics, elections: Quader

Awami League General Secretary Obaidul Quader Wednesday said the BNP has no specific outline on politics and elections.  “In fact, they (BNP leaders) do not have a clear outline of politics and elections. We want to say that the next general polls will be held in line with the constitutional provisions,” he said in a statement.

Quader, also the road transport and bridges minister, said the Constitution clearly states that how general elections will be held. He said the BNP leaders have lost their rhythm in the dream of seizing state power by conspiring and making their foreign masters satisfied.

Once they demanded the enactment of a law to form a new Election Commission and they also opposed the government's initiative to this end, the AL general secretary said. He said the BNP leaders are trying to make the EC formation process and the Election Commission questionable.

“We’ve repeatedly said that the caretaker government is an issue settled by the country’s apex court. Like other democratic countries, elections will be held following the Constitution,” Quader said. He said Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s government has taken an initiative to strengthen the EC and the BNP leaders can give their ‘valuable opinion’ to this initiative.

The Awami League is the oldest and only political party formed to establish the rights of people in this country, he said. Under the leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, the AL government has been working sincerely for the establishment of a state system based on democratic values and the spirit of the Liberation War, and ensuring the wellbeing of the country’s people, the road transport minister said.

He said as the BNP leaders are involved in various intrigues at home and abroad to regain power, they find the smell of conspiracy in every word. By introducing plundering and irregularities in the politics of Bangladesh, the BNP is creating obstacles at every step of establishing democracy, Quader said. “I would like to tell the BNP leaders that the AL does not hold rigged elections to grab power. Fixing in the political game is the traditional political culture of the BNP,” he said.

Recalling that the then BNP government held a voter-less election on February 15 in 1996, the AL general secretary said the BNP leaders raised question about the 2018 general election but it was a participatory and inclusive one. He said since its birth, the BNP's politics has been established on anti-people and power-mongering policy. In the past, Quader said, the country’s people witnessed how the BNP had played game with the democratic system.

He urged the BNP leaders to look their faces in the mirror. “You will see your own ugly reflection there for inserting the mark of stigma on the forehead of the nation,” he added.