Polls will be held in due time

The next parliamentary elections will be held in due time following the constitution of the country, said Awami League General Secretary and Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader on Friday.

He made the comment while addressing a routine press conference on the contemporary issue at his official residence in Dhaka.

Quader said, “The polls will be held in due time following the constitution. BNP has no need to place any demand centering the polls.” He further said BNP is trying to heat up the field with a trivial issue as it has not been able to find any suitable issue.

Referring to BNP’s demand for holding polls under a non-party and neutral government, Quader recalled that once BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia had commented that “none is neutral except insane and children and the concept of the caretaker government is absurd.”

“Activists of BNP are now angry with their leaders because of the aimless and wrong politics of the party. The seasonal calls of the BNP’s movement are just an attempt to quell the accumulated anger of the activists,” said Quader.

In response to the BNP leaders’ statement that the government has enacted the Digital Security Act to cling to power, Obaidul Quader said Sheikh Hasina’s government stays in power with people’s confidence and love and not capitalizing on any act.

Referring to the BNP’s habit of spreading propaganda and hiding from the people, Obaidul Quader said people have turned them away from the BNP.

Quader said the government formulates any law in the interest of the people. “Different countries in the world have legal structures for digital security. Freedom of expression doesn’t mean doing or saying whatever we want,” he said.

The government has already issued stern directives against any kind of misuse of the act, he said. The AL general secretary said now BNP has become a part of spreading rumors losing its identity as a political party.

BNP is now solely dependent on spreading rumors and propaganda and that is why it is opposing the Digital Security Act and modern technology as well.