BNP will not go to polls under AL govt, BNP tell EU delegation

Bangladesh Nationalist Party leaders on Saturday told the visiting Election Exploratory Mission from the European Union that it was not possible for their party to join the next national election under the current Awami League government.

‘We’ve told them that there’s no question of going to elections under this regime, it is not possible. There’re so many reasons behind it,’ said BNP standing committee member Amir Khosru Mahmud Chowdhury.

Talking to reporters after the meeting with the EU team, he said that they informed the EU delegation that the people of Bangladesh would not be able to cast their votes and elect their representatives through the election under the current regime. ‘These things are as clear as the daylight. Everyone knows these.’

The BNP leader said the entire world has an eye on Bangladesh’s election as they know the elections under this government were questionable and not acceptable. ‘That’s why they’re expressing their concerns.’

‘Why should the EU team come to Bangladesh and take opinions on the election? They don’t have to go to any country in South Asia to this end. Even, they hardly go to any country in the world for this purpose. So, why did they have to come to Bangladesh? Like everyone else, they may have the same question about the elections under this regime,’ Khosru observed.

He said the EU team wanted to know whether the people of Bangladesh would be able to cast their votes in the elections in the days to come.

The BNP leader said that the government indulged in vote stealing in the past and they are still doing the same thing and will continue it in the future too. ‘They’ll go to power again through this process by controlling the election and keeping the people out of voting. These issues have been naturally discussed in the meeting.’

The visiting EU Election Exploratory Mission came to the BNP Chairperson’s Gulshan office at 9:00am and had a nearly one hour and 15 minutes meeting with a BNP delegation, led by party secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir.

Apart from Fakhrul and Khosru, the party chairperson’s adviser Ismail Jabiullah, organising secretary Shama Obaed, and human rights affairs secretary Asaduzzaman Asad were present at the meeting.

The EU team was also scheduled to hold meetings with the ruling Awami League, Jatiya Party and some other parties on Saturday.

The EU Election Exploratory Mission arrived in Dhaka on July 9 on a two-week visit and it has already talked to the Election Commission and various stakeholders of the government as part of their move to assess whether a fully-fledged Election Observation Mission should be sent here by the EU before Bangladesh’s next parliamentary election.