The BNP on Saturday claimed that foreign donors have expressed their no-confidence in the current government’s election management by withdrawing funds for an Election Commission
project.
Addressing a press briefing at the party’s Nayapaltan central office, BNP spokesman Asaduzzaman Ripon urged the chief election commissioner and four others commissioners to quit shouldering the responsibility for denting the commission’s credibility.
“The country’s people have no confidence in the current regime so does the international community. The UNDP has pulled out its fund for an EC project. We think foreign friends have exposed their no-confidence in the government’s election management by withdrawing the fund,” he said.
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has terminated a project titled ‘Strengthening Election Management in Bangladesh’ much earlier than the schedule closure citing reasons for withdrawal of funds by donors.
“With the withdrawal of donor funds to the project, however, the project will be terminated at the end of July 2015,” said an UN media note issued recently. The EU, the UK, and the US had been funding it since April 2012.
Ripon, BNP’s international affairs secretary, said the donors got disappointed witnessing irregularities and manipulation in the three city polls held on April 28. “The UNDP and the EU had requested the EC to look into the incidents, but neither the government nor the commission carried out any investigation into the allegations.”
He came down hard on the election commission saying it has turned into a shameless government’s puppet organisation.
Mentioning that the current commission has lost its all credibility to hold any free and fair election, the BNP leader said, “We’ve long been calling for reconstituting the commission. We now urge the chief election commissioner and other commissioners to quit voluntarily paving the path for forming a fair, credible and accountable Commission.”
He also demanded the government reconstitute the EC in consultation with all the registered parties and civil society members.
Ripon strongly condemned Health Minister Mohammad Nasim’s remark that Khalea Zia’s politics is now limited to Ladies Club. “It’s a regrettable matter that our constitutional rights have gradually been squeezed. Our democratic space has been shrunk to such a place that an influential minister is now saying Khaleda Zi’s politics is limited to Ladies Club. You’ve kept BNP indoor stopping the door to come out in field. Is it your credit or fascist and autocratic attitude?”
Stating that a mass wave of lakhs of people is created when BNP chief take to streets, the BNP leader said the government is also creating obstacle to Khaleda’s movement upsetting by her popularity.
He also protested the attack on an iftar party of BNP leader Dr Abdul Moyeen Khan in Narsingdi allegedly by ruling party cadres and demanded the government take action against them.
Source: Prothom-Alo
