The BNP thinks the Awami League general secretary’s comments on ‘recommended names’ for the committee to search for commissioners for the new Election Commission ‘intend’ to put the president in a controversial position.
BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir has said the Awami League has been trying to do this because “it knows it will never be able to come to power through free and fair elections”.
“That’s why they want to make even the president controversial. I feel sorry when I hear the various top (Awami League) leaders making different comments, which have no basis,” Mirza Fakhrul stated at a discussion at the Supreme Court Bar Association Auditorium on Monday.
In reaction to the BNP leaders’ threat that the party will not accept a ‘partisan EC’, Awami League General Secretary Obaidul Quader said on Sunday that BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia had recommended former chief justice KM Hasan as a member of the ‘search committee’ during the talks she and her team had with the president recently.
“Wasn’t Mr Hasan the international affairs secretary of the BNP? Then what is partisan and what is neutral?” he asked.
For his part, Mirza Fakhrul queried as to how Quader knew about the matter though no BNP leader had revealed it. He also claimed Quader was engaging in untruth over the matter.
On Monday, he urged the government to accept the proposal placed by Khaleda on forming the next EC and strengthening it.
“I would like to thank the president for calling the political parties to the dialogue on forming the next EC by responding to our proposal,” he said.
The BNP secretary general also agreed with President Md Abdul Hamid’s address at the winter session of Parliament.
“He expressed his wish to see democracy being strengthened with everyone’s inclusion. We have been saying the same thing repeatedly — that we want an inclusive democracy, inclusive election, inclusive politics,” Mirza Fakhrul said.
At the discussion organised by the Jatiyatabadi Ainjibi Forum to mark the 81st birth anniversary of BNP founder Ziaur Rahman, Mirza Fakhrul urged the pro-BNP lawyers to ‘remain united to restore democracy’.
Source: bdnews24
